Shawn,

I know this doesn't directly address your question(s), but have you seen how the .NET Windows Forms Error Provider adds exclamation points next to the fields with broken rules?

If not, check out "Displaying Broken Rules and Warnings in Windows Forms" in the dev guide. Maybe this will be enough to alert your users when they've broken business rules.

Hope that helps,
---J

>************** Updated added another question below
>
>What I would like to do is have the text box turn RED when an error is triggered on the field.
>Using the N-Tier approach, I am following MM Business Rules object for Validation, of Data.
>I able to display a message box to the user, but what I would really like to do is set the back color to red and display a message box.
>
>Then after the user has modified the text box set it's color back to the original color.
>
>So basically the following would be the functionality of the form.
>
>User opens form enters some data
>User skips, Date of Birth field.
>User Skips Date of Hire field.
>User clicks Save.
>
>I run the Business rules before the save it comes back and says Date of Birth and Date of Hire are empty.
>How can I turn these fields red to attract the user attention to it.
>How do I reset the color after the user leaves the field, regardless of content.
>
>***********
>Would it be better to pass the object so i can set properties of the object, but doesn't this break n-tier design??
>
>
>
>Many Thanks In Advance!