Jobs Simply

Can Microsoft Access pull information from a table without updating the table itself?

I am completely drawing a blank on this setup that I thought I had a firm grasp of. The best way to describe my request is in the form of a [much] simplified example. The simplified payroll database contains two tables: a "Jobs" table, and a "Pay" table. The jobs table contains recurring jobs, and the number of hours it takes to complete. The pay table is a table that you select a job by date, and assign a rate. I have created a ComboBox that is linked to the "Jobs" table so that I can select an available job, and the number of hours. Using the lookup wizard, access automatically fills in the number of hours. Here's the tricky part: assuming a job took longer than expected, I would like to change the number of hours on the pay table. Yet, when I do this, it also changes the hours set up on the Jobs table. Is there anyway to prevent it from updating the Jobs table? Thanks in advance.

Public Comments

1. Try to do a query instead by using the query wizard. This should fix your problem.
2. You are going at it the wrong way. Use the automatic system for the initial costing, and a separate final cost field. It might pay to keep another table listing the time differences against the job, and you could then use this to modify the original time if it is regularly adrift. You can use the row id of the job to link this, and then the difference in time can be used to change the final cost field, if there is no time difference you add 0 to the original cost field, if there is you get a time * rate difference added (this becomes 0 for no difference). The job is then costed at the updated cost.