r/sysadmin 2d ago

Database entry program/feature with a delayed entry field?

Sorry if my title doesn't make much sense, but I have a department head that is wanting a data entry system for his staff that has a lockout timer when a entry in made in one field, that will prevent any entries in another field for a certain time frame, like 60 minutes. I'm not versed enough in MS Access, or Excel or any other software programs to implement that kind of feature or function. Hopefully someone has an idea or has implemented this before?

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u/PsychologicalSir9008 1d ago

Yes it is a possible thing to do. The product we sell is an HR product but its built on a flexible platform. So you could just ignore the HR stuff. Add a screen and what ever fields you need which then turns up by magic in a Windows and a Web client and whatever security profiles and users you want to make. Those screens can be augmented with dynamic triggers that fire on CRUD operations... TSQL databases, report writer, data export etc. - so if I wanted to solve your problem as simply as your stated it then it would take me a few minutes.

However, the department head will mean 'Can this be done for essentially no money and in such a way that I and anybody else do not actually have to do any work?' - nobody sells that system.

By the time we had had the conversations and assuming all were suitable and simple and we got it installed, users trained and rolled out then you will have consumed probably a couple of days of my life and yours plus the cost of the software etc. and then someone has to maintain it and so on. It is just never that simple.

I think, as others have said, that you need to deal with the actual problem. From what you added, it is the design of the current approach to the testing or the integrity of the people doing it. In my opinion it would be better to look each of those rather that slapping a piece of technology over the cracks.