thanks robot tourist - I actually took your advice and went with KSH after doing a little research I found that this is a useful tool and much better suited for what I was trying to achieve. A coworker showed me "CORN" I automated job scheduler that exists in Solaris. He was kind enough to put the script in there so now it runs every morning! My next task is to write a reporting tool on the internet! or the local company internet I mean. Thanks for the tip