Tony,

>Good so far but one more thing is happening, no errors show up in the code.
>However, when I run the app I'm getting a message
>"Object reference not set to an instance of an object."
>"Use the New keyword..."
>
>it's at the line
>lcDept = dsItems.Tables(0).Rows(0).Item("DeptMMC").ToString()
>
>I thought that 'dsItems' dataset was already set as an object, why do I have to set a New keyword? And what am I setting it to? Is it because the dsItems is in the business object?

I recommend setting a breakpoint on this line to see what's null. It may be that:

1. dsItems is null
2. There are no tables in dsItems
3. There are no rows in Tables(0)
4. There is no column named "DeptMMC" in the DataTable.

Best Regards,