Sounds like a MIGHTY undertaking. It can be done, but with that amount of time, and your background, I don't know.
As far as books, find the "Access 97 Developer's Handbook" by Getz, Litwin and Gilbert (SYBEX) or the new 2000 version, depending on your version of Access.
As MichaelRed said, start small. First, collect types and examples of all the data you are going to want to track. Decide what data can be derived from other data (Why track total sales when you can add it up on the fly) and remove that. See how the data relates to each other, invoice number, customer id, etc. Start grouping your data together logically, customer info all together, sales data together, employee data together. When you have got that far, repost your groupings (table design) here and we can help some.
After that, you can create your tables in Access. Then, you can start creating forms to display your data and then reports.
Like we are all saying, one step at a time. Hope that is a start...
Terry M. Hoey
th3856@txmail.sbc.com
While I don't mind e-mail messages, please post all questions in these forums for the benefit of all members.