title: Cannot add or change a record because a related record is required in table 'COMPANY'
body: <p>I think my <strong>Contact List</strong> database design is correct, but there is an error. Access 2013 is telling me:</p>
  
  <blockquote>
    <p>You cannot add or change a record because a related record is required in table 'COMPANY'</p>
  </blockquote>
  
  <p>I'm new to Access and this is for a class called "Computer Concepts II". I've already done my assignment, and followed the instructions meticulously. This course is held online only and I have tried 3 times in 3 different ways but haven't been able to get any feedback from the instructor.</p>
  
  <p>Here is the breakdown of the things I have tried:</p>
  
  <ul>
  <li>As the error seemed to indicate, I attempted to fix the issue by closing the PERSON table and then opening and entering data in the FAMILY table. I made up 3 families is different states, with my real address and surname entered as the 4th. Saved FAMILY table.</li>
  <li>Opened PERSON table again and began to enter data from left to right (screenshot). Upon using arrow down key or double-clicking to autofit column widths I got the the error at the beginning, referencing the COMPANY table.</li>
  <li><p>Found and read the following seemingly related posts, but none of them offer the help I was looking for:</p>
  
  <p><a href="https://stackoverflow.com/questions/18793138/you-cannot-add-or-change-a-record-because-a-related-record-is-required-but-re">&quot;You cannot add or change a record because a related record is required&quot;, but related record exists?</a></p>
  
  <p><a href="https://stackoverflow.com/questions/10856619/you-cannot-add-or-change-a-record-because-a-related-record-is-required-in-table">You cannot add or change a record because a related record is required in table</a></p>
  
  <p><a href="https://stackoverflow.com/questions/26573293/not-allowed-to-create-or-change-a-record-in-ms-access">Not allowed to create or change a record in MS Access</a></p>
  
  <ul>
  <li><p><a href="https://stackoverflow.com/questions/18793138/you-cannot-add-or-change-a-record-because-a-related-record-is-required-but-re">“You cannot add or change a record because a related record is required”, but related record exists?</a></p></li>
  <li><p><a href="https://stackoverflow.com/questions/10856619/you-cannot-add-or-change-a-record-because-a-related-record-is-required-in-table">You cannot add or change a record because a related record is required in table</a></p></li>
  <li><p><a href="https://stackoverflow.com/questions/26573293/not-allowed-to-create-or-change-a-record-in-ms-access">Not allowed to create or change a record in MS Access</a></p></li>
  </ul></li>
  </ul>
  
  <h2>Business Rules</h2>
  
  <ol>
  <li>A person must have only one family, but a family can have many people.</li>
  <li>A person can work for one or zero companies.</li>
  <li>A company can have zero or many people.</li>
  <li>For MS Access purposes <strong>PERSON</strong> is the <strong>strong</strong> table.</li>
  </ol>
  
  <h2>MY ERD Diagram</h2>
  
  <p><a href="https://i.stack.imgur.com/Ma3Ac.png" rel="nofollow noreferrer"><img src="https://i.stack.imgur.com/Ma3Ac.png" alt="Eric Hepperle&#39;s ERD for Contact List Database in Access 2013"></a></p>
  
  <h2>BUILT THE TABLES</h2>
  
  <ol>
  <li>Built PERSON table.</li>
  <li>Built COMPANY table.</li>
  <li>Built FAMILY table.</li>
  </ol>
  
  <h2>CREATED RELATIONSHIPS</h2>
  
  <ol>
  <li>Created relationships between tables (see screenshot attached). For optionality, set PERSON as the "strong" table.</li>
  <li>Originally had ID-FAM and LNAME fields in FAMILY table as both required and indexed.</li>
  <li>Originally had ID-PER, ID-FAM_FK, &amp; ID-COM_FK in PERSON table as indexed.</li>
  <li>Originally had ID-COM as the only indexed and required field in COMPANY table.</li>
  </ol>
  
  <h2>ENCOUNTERED 'RELATED RECORD' ERROR WHILE ENTERING DATA IN PARENT TABLE</h2>
  
  <ul>
  <ul>
  <li>As indicated in the Using Access 2010 document, I started by entering data in my parent table (PERSON) first. However, when I finished filling all fields in the first row and pressed the "ARROW DOWN" key to advance to the next row, I got an error message saying</li>
  </ul>
  </ul>
  
  <blockquote>"You cannot add or change a record because a related record is required in table 'FAMILY'"</blockquote>
  
  <p>Well, a COMPANY entry is completely optional and not required in any way, so that's a bit confusing. I'm not sure what I'm doing wrong or where to go from here. I did not know how to use Access before this class but I think I have a pretty good handle on it now, and I've followed the instructions meticulously. Thus, <strong>I believe the issue is a misconfigured setting somewhere.</strong></p>