We are closer. I made the changes to suggest but the form would not load. Fixed this problem by going back to the original line

thisform.cboPhase.RowSource = ;
'select phasename,projectphaseid from projectphases where projectid = val(this.Value) into cursor crsPhases'

in the first combo. For some reason the value property of the combo is giving me a character rather than a number. Edits to the grid seem to work but now there is an error with cboPhase.InteractiveChange. The error says "Cannot refresh CursorAdapter Table buffer for alias CA1 contains uncommitted changes."
I tried adding tableupdate to the first call in the cbo but no luck.

>Don, few things:
>
>Remove:
>

>= CURSORSETPROP('Buffering',5, 'biditems' )  && Enable row buffering.
>= CURSORSETPROP('Buffering',5, 'projects' )  && Enable row buffering.
>= CURSORSETPROP('Buffering',5, 'projectphases' )  && Enable row buffering.
>= CURSORSETPROP('Buffering',5, 'lineitemspecs' )  && Enable row buffering.
>

>
>From your Init Event of the form or remove only this for biditems, there is no need of it. You use CA and It is buffered.
>
>Second: Add KeyField in UpdateNameList:
>

>this.oCa.updatenamelist =     "lineitemest biditems.lineitemest," + ;
>                              "lineitemqty biditems.lineitemqty,"  + ;
>                              "biditemid   biditems.biditemid"
>

>
>Third: Change this code in InterActiveChange Event of the cboProject:
>

>this.Value = this.Value
>thisform.cboPhase.RowSourceType = 3
>
>**** from this:
>thisform.cboPhase.RowSource = ;
>'select phasename,projectphaseid from projectphases where projectid = val(this.Value) into cursor crsPhases'
>
>*** to this:
>thisform.cboPhase.RowSource = ;
>        'select phasename,projectphaseid from projectphases where projectid = '+this.Value+' into cursor crsPhases'
>thisform.cboPhase.Requery()
>thisform.cboPhase.DisplayValue = ' '
>dodefault()
>