[AccessD] Barcoding in Access

My friend Nancy Lytle is having trouble posting to AccessD from her work
email so I'm posting this on her behalf.

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I am working at a small company that sells very high end audio/visual
assemblies and installation and integration with home automation systems.
We have sales people who get the clients and jobs and then turn them into
specific orders which are then fabricated/assembled and then put in a
holding area until they are packed on the truck to go to the site (usually a
house being constructed).  Items occasionally are returned to the warehouse.
We do not keep a real inventory, we order and have on hand only the items
the clients have ordered.  The only things we "stock" are things like wiring
and racks since we have very limited warehouse space.

We have an Access database where we keep the information on clients, jobs,
orders, purchase orders, contracts, quotes, etc are keep.  We are thinking
about add the use of barcodes to the database to 1) track employee time on
jobs, they do fabrication and installation for multiple jobs in a day and 2)
track the A/V equipment that is ordered for a client and used in the
fabrication of their order, in other words track from PO to receiving to
shelving to fabrication to pick/pack list to return to office (if not used).

The concerns seem to be billing the clients properly for the time the
assemblers/installers work a job, and keeping tighter control on the
"inventory" we do have on hand, so we know if a piece if equipment has come
in, if so where it is and if the order was not completely filled - how many
remain to be received, etc.

I wanted to ask about other people's what their experiences with barcoding
as part of an Access solution and their opinions on whether barcoding might
be of use in this type of situation or if some other solution might be
better.

Nancy Lytle
nlytle at allaroundtech.com

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Doris Manning
Database Administrator
Hargrove Inc.
www.hargroveinc.com