I would like to create a database for recording cost estimates in the construction field. What would you as a professional do?

An estimate can include but not be limited to:

- Products (Manufactured products, eg: floor systems)
- Shipping (Shipping of products)
- Assembly (Assembly of products on site)
- Field Materials (Materials other then products required for assembly)
- Finishing (Materials and labour required after assembly)

Now, should each of the above be represented by one table "tbProductTakeoff", "tbShippingTakeoff", "tbAssembly", etc. or should they be collectively recorded to one table, eg: "tbTakeoff".

In the latter case, some intermediate tables would probably be required as well as a category field would be required to tell it what the record actually represents?

In the former case, the GUI would be much harder to handle in the sence there are several tables....

I know alot of responces would be, the tables should be representative of the entities, which is what? The products, Shipping, etc or the takeoff?

Also some might say "It depends on the attributes for each category." which is very true, but with some tweeking, it could be accomplished that each item could be represented by a "Item", "Cost", "Quantity", "SubTotal", "Total".

Ahhhhhh, I don't know.

Am I overthinking?

Mike B

I would create a table that could define a standard cost per base measure

I would create a table to be the quote etc

I would use a linking table that has a primary key made of the keys from Quote and item to break out the many to many. It would also have quantity.

Thus you can add as many multiples of sand, paper, lettice, man power etc for any job.

I might want to put a seperate table to handle the labour.

The UI shouldn't be too hard.