>Does anyone know how i can get a count of records and give the users an estimated process time so that they can determine whether or not to proceed with a module?
In addition to using David's suggestion of a progressbar: You can give your users the option of interrupting the process. That way, they can decide whether to continue or not.
In some cases, it is not practical to interrupt a process.
Difference in opinions hath cost many millions of lives: for instance, whether flesh be bread, or bread be flesh; whether whistling be a vice or a virtue; whether it be better to kiss a post, or throw it into the fire... (from Gulliver's Travels)