Forms! Where Am I Going Wrong....

Hi,

frustration city over here.

for something that reads so simple, i cannot do it. why?

4 tables
Contacts
Authorizations
Payment Numbers
Payments

all tables are 1 to many relationships with referential integrity.
every contact can have many Authorizations
every authorization can have many payment numbers
many payment numbers can have many payments

all payments numbers created are based on the latest Authorization number.
a single payment number will have numerous payments listed.

i have tried forms with qry, forms with tbl, forms with forms, sub forms, sub sub forms. i can get so far but then everything stops linking together. ive tried VB ( barr it i am better with Excel!! ) to open forms, link forms.

story.
1. my main form will show the current contact & all details.

2. i click a button and want to make a payment to them.

3. a form should open and automatically create a new payment number with a subform ready to receive payment details in a continuous form layout. i can then either press an apply button on the main form to save or a cancel button to completely cancel the payment number.

after this, i wanted to add a button on this form to add a new authorization number and refresh but i need to get over this hurdle first.

Please Please Please can someone guide me? the rest of my project is based like this so if i can understand how this can be done, i can move forward to complete.


Any help would be graciously received so i can at least move in a direction rather than circles!!!!!


many thanks,


Nigel