Please explain how the tables are related. I presume cost/inventory to be that of your company not the customer's.

that may in fact be my question as to how to relate the tables.  I used the example of Customer/Inventory/cost as the most obvious relationship and hoped it made my dilemma easier to understand.    

My actual situation may be as simple as using a Form to correlate three tables and insert the compiled information into a four table.  i.e. and Instrument table that has specific information, another table that has other information needed for calculations, and a third table to used for comparing the results of the calculations to see if they are within ranges.  All this information may need to be put into a large four table for referencing and reporting.  but I am not sure how to relate them to each other for query purposes unless i just query the fourth table.

Sorry this is so wordy but hope this helps see my problem.

Very difficult to answer without specifics but it sounds like you need to check out the many to many relationship video. It's for when you have, for example, a list of authors and a list of books. An author can of course write more than one book, but they can also collaborate, making more than one author per book. Hope that helps.

I does and thank you.

On the other hand...

Sometimes there just isn't a way to force a relationship of the data because it just isn't related. There is nothing from stopping you from creating different reports or displaying different data on a form.  As the developer, you are in charge!
Check out the Dashboards video. There is a bunch more in the Access Expert 31.

Be aware that the more complex that you make it the more likely it is that it will greatly slow down a form.  You may want to make it a more manual process (Click a button) vs an automatic one.
This is the great thing about how Richard teaches his courses.  You are the driver and get to determine where the bus is headed. Or, using the analogy he likes to use - It's like Legos.  He gives us the pieces - We get to decide what we're going to build today.

Thanks and you are correct I am the developer.  I am just looking at it from the end user stand point and many of the users do not have computer skills that are common sense related (not pun intended).  So to have it do the function automatically is preferable and I think yo are correct there is more information in the Expert 31 lessons that I am pulling out now.

Thanks again

Larry I agree about automating a process as much as possible. Even I, as a more experienced user, hate having to remember a ton of steps.  If I can just fill in some info and click a button to have Access return the results I'm looking for I'm all over it.

The next question here I guess is:  
Is this specific issue you are trying to solve right now or more of a hypothetical question?
If it is the former maybe you could be more specific what it is you are trying to do.  What are the end results you want to achieve?
If it is the latter I'd have to say it depends on each situation as to how you would solve a problem.  Access is great at following our directions but it can't think on it's own (yet) to anticipate what we might need or what we really need.

My question is, why are you trying to combine these all into one table? If you're just trying to provide summary information for your user, why don't you just use a query with the proper joins in it, and then base whatever summary you want off of that query?

I was trying not to get into to technical a discussion but I am creating a database that has many aspects to it for my department and i have multiple forms for producing the proper data entry into the tables.  But I am trying to develop several forms that solve issues my technicians have sometimes such as entering information about a calibration of an instrument that must fall between certain ranges (i.e., 2 and 4) for example.  I want to have the data on the form compare the result of the technicians entries with the range needed and have a decision tool that turns the result field "green" if the instrument passes or "red" if the instrument fails.

I also am creating tables to track next series products from various locations so if the technician does a survey from area "TSF" I want the query to give me the next available number from "TSF" but if the technician is working at "GMT" then I want the next available number from that location.  I was trying drop down menus for this one but have forgotten how to SQL "Nextnumber" or where to put the directions.

I realize these are two different topics but they have a common base (at least in my head) of query and result issues.

thanks for the help if I did not say it earlier.

What Richard says is right: you join tables to form queries, but you don't combine tables to form bigger tables.  Tables are supposed to be normalized, meaning that each item should stored in one place only.  If you combine tables, the result is likely not normalized anymore.

Can you show me an example of what you would like the final result to look like? Screen shots are always easier to grasp than words. Mock it up in Excel if you have to.

This is the form I am trying to duplicate using various tables.  This is the instrument form and I have broken it down by tables and the only data being stored in the daily source table is just the information from the individual records.  I am thinking sub forms but I am only up to expert level 7 in the courses so I am looking forward to completing the course and want to know if I am jumping ahead of my self.  I have done the calculations before in cells and have done the heavy stuff like "exp" calcs but am now trying to learn the better way to do this.

These are the second half of my question which I think are connected via the automation aspect of what I am trying to do.  They may actually be different processes in someone else's head though???