In the long run, and if your business gets large (or already is) then a
relational database could be a very good way to track such things - although
as Roger Govier has pointed out, you may be able to get along with Excel for
quite some time.

"setting up" a relational database takes a good bit of thought and planning.
First I'd ask your friend if he has the expertise and time to assist you
with the project since it would obviously be your first database effort. For
your initial effort, MSFT Access would probably be a good choice and could
work for a long time and when you finally have a chain of dealerships, it
upscales to SQL Server pretty well.

Here's a little introductory .pdf file that I put together a while back to
kind of introduce folks to the way things work and to give a person an idea
of how they need to plan a database out that you could read through:
http://www.jlathamsite.com/teach/datanormalizing.pdf
you'll find links to that file and an associated .mdb file (needs Access to
use) on this page http://www.jlathamsite.com/learningpage.htm

Good luck with your business.


"Roger Govier" wrote:

Hi

Before you go off on the task of moving all your data to a Relational
database, consider why it is that you want to do so.

Your data sounds as though it would be ideal for analysis via a Pivot
Table, and I would suggest you take a look at this first to see if your
requirements can be satisfied. You can view data in all sorts of ways
and change those views very quickly with a Pivot Table.

Take a look at the following sites
http://peltiertech.com/Excel/Pivots/pivotstart.htm
http://www.contextures.com/xlPivot02.html

http://www.datapigtechnologies.com/f...es/pivot1.html

http://www.edferrero.com/Tutorials.aspx


--
Regards

Roger Govier


"Hotsoss13" wrote in message
...
I am looking to set up a realtional database based on my car lot .
Information I have on the spread sheet include: manufacturer, year of
car,
model, the price it sold for, date it was sold, my salesperson who
sold it,
their percent commission, and commission in dollars. I friend said it
would
be easier to manage this database using a relational database. Can
somone
guide me as to how to set up a relational database.

thanks in advance for you help