Database Design: How to track airline ticket sales in Access Database?

Question

I'm working on my final project for an intro to Access DB class. My assignment is a general "Create a DB with at least 3 tables, of which 2 are linked," with some specific requirements for types of tables (customer relations, financial management, product/service-related data).

I decided to create a database for a fictional airline. I need to track financial information, particularly the sale of tickets. I have a tblFlights table that includes a BaseFare field, a tblAirports table that includes airport fees and airport taxes and a tblInvoice table that currently only has invoice number and customer ID fields in it. I suppose that I would use a report to generate an actual invoice, not a table, right? So, I don't want to store a bunch of financial data in an invoice table, and maybe I shouldn't even have an invoice table? How do I keep track of how much money customers owe and how much they have paid?

Answer 1

I suppose that I would use a report to generate an actual invoice, not a table, right?

Yes, use a report.

So, I don't want to store a bunch of financial data in an invoice table, and maybe I shouldn't even have an invoice table? How do I keep track of how much money customers owe and how much they have paid?

Well, I suppose some industries might be able to get an airline to send them in invoice, but I've never heard of that myself. In my experience, you pay first, then they give you the ticket. So I'd expect a table of tickets, which would identify the flight, the seat (or its equivalent), the person's name, and something to indicate that it's paid (a Boolean flag, a price, something like that).