Can't decide, FileMaker or Numbers

Question

Can't decide, FileMaker or Numbers

Sorry for this very broad topic but I need a place to start working from.

I have an idea to keep a record of grocery store prices for comparative shopping and to see trends. This is where my family spends most of it's money every month so it's important. Entry of data would be on an iPhone at the store while shopping.

We primarily shop at two stores. I would like to enter the prices for each item. Some items can have many varieties especially produce. And of course each variety can be either organic or not. This makes a spreadsheet very large which is hard to navigate on an iPhone. Designing the spreadsheet begins to get very confusing for me.

The information that is needed while shopping would be the last price paid for the same product to determine if the store you're in has a good deal or not. And to see a trend in a store's prices over time.

Is this more easily done in a database or a spreadsheet format? I am thinking a database because each trip is new data. Would be even better to scan receipts, but that feels like commercial software production.

What I have come up with so far is a file that has two sheets one for each store. Each sheet has four sections: produce, dairy, meat, grocery.

The problem is I don't want to scroll through 15 rows of different varieties of apples, etc... Of course each variety having different prices on different dates in different stores,,, oh my.

iMac, OS X El Capitan (10.11.4)

Posted on Apr 27, 2016 1:43 PM

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Answer 1

SGIII

Level 8

35,306 points

Apr 27, 2016 5:52 PM in response to johnnyjackhammer

This doesn't strike as something easily done with Numbers on an iPhone.

I am sure FileMaker can handle it, but as you probably know, databases can get really complicated in a hurry. Much thought would need to be given up front to the structure and relationships of the data tables.

SG

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Answer 2

t quinn

Level 5

7,043 points

Apr 27, 2016 8:23 PM in response to johnnyjackhammer

Hi John,

While I do believe the sheer volume of data would be a burden to Numbers in the long run I do know it is possible to do what you want. I have something similar for my chinese herb records. I have slightly more than 200 herbs I order and I place orders 6 or so times a year with 8-16 herbs per order. So I am nowhere near the volume you are talking about.

If you don't mind scraping your work in Numbers if things slow to a crawl you might play around with it. You already have Numbers. It will be educational!

I was looking to do something similar when I first visited this forum. How do I find the last instance with VLOOKUP? I used Jerry's solution for years (it was a great educaton) but finally realized SG's answer would cover me. It requires popup menus to be reliable.

I would be creating a single data table for all data entry. Date, Item, Organic check box, Price, Store, Category. If I decided to split this up I would have separate Produce, Grocery, etc. tables. I would not split out the stores. My popup for produce would have Apples and Apples-premium. I would not attempt to compare Galas and Pink Ladies. Same would apply to pasta- regular and premium.

I would add a couple of report columns for last best price and store. I would use a form on my iPhone- I see no issue with 8 or so columns. 16 columns would be two entire screens on a 4" screen.

I would have various report tables. A master table that tracks each item with its last price at each store and does most of the calculations needed. I might create tables for specific graphs and charts.

quinn

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