The purpose of a database is to give you control over your information so you can easily access the exact information you need to run your business in a more efficient way. This purpose is realized through careful consideration of three components. These are the tools for building a system with flexible simplicity. I will outline a real-world example to show one possible approach. An architectural office can be a record keeping nightmare.
Architects are generally right-brained folks who shy away from figures and calculations.
They cringe at the thought of tracking numbers and documents. At the same time, as a firm grows, the need to predict, track, and manage each employee's time becomes increasingly important. Architects must compete for jobs just like everyone else. In order to compete effectively, they must have a handle on how much, or how little, of a fee they need to charge in order to secure the job and still make a profit. Using a database can simplify this process and make it easy to use past projects to help predict the requirements of future projects.