Using Access over Excel for database management

[Sk8Surfr]

So... right now at my job I have 10 different outlook files for different sales people.  Each file has the accounts they handle and the monthly revenue going back - 10 years.

 

The problem - is having to update 10 different files each month...

 

I would love to be able to use access to have every account in one place and then when I update those each excel sheet gets updated for the staff?

 

Is that easily doable in Access?  

 

I consider myself a strong user of excel but have never used access..

 

Thanks in advance! 

[sc302 Veteran]

sure, but it does require a bit of programming to get the fields to do what you want, and if you want a front end well you will need to design that too. 

 

Might I suggest something like ACT!, it would probably work better or some other customer relations manager (crm).  Each can have their own logon and enter their own data.

[Sk8Surfr]

  On 20/07/2015 at 15:44, sc302 said:

sure, but it does require a bit of programming to get the fields to do what you want, and if you want a front end well you will need to design that too. 

 

Might I suggest something like ACT!, it would probably work better or some other customer relations manager (crm).  Each can have their own logon and enter their own data.

 

Gotta stick with MS suite... since that's what the company uses... 

[+BudMan MVC]

Yeah there are much better contact management systems other than outlook contact files that is for sure..  The mentioned ACT is one of the major players in that area.  http://www.act.com/

[Sk8Surfr]

Sorry, maybe my initial post wasn't clear... 

 

It is more about the DATA than it is the customers.  

 

I'm not concerned with addresses, and contact name etc.

 

It's about revenue 

[Ice_Blue]

If you give me an outline of what data you need to track, I may be able to give you some guidelines as to how to develop an access database to accomplish this.

[Sk8Surfr]

  On 20/07/2015 at 15:56, Ice_Blue said:

If you give me an outline of what data you need to track, I may be able to give you some guidelines as to how to develop an access database to accomplish this.

 

 

We have 10 sales people who handle different accounts.  Right now I update 10 different excel worksheets every month so they have updated figures of how much those customers spent last month.  I am basically opening/closing 10 different workbooks.  And then lets say someone leaves and we hire someone new I then have to create a new sheet and transfer the accounts.

 

I would love to be able to have ONE master sheet and a field with a salespersons initials and then I update that one sheet monthly it automatically updates 10 individual sheets for the sales people.

 

Hope that makes sense.

[sc302 Veteran]

  On 20/07/2015 at 15:53, Sk8Surfr said:

Sorry, maybe my initial post wasn't clear... 

 

It is more about the DATA than it is the customers.  

 

I'm not concerned with addresses, and contact name etc.

 

It's about revenue 

Fully understand that, however instead of trying to recreate the wheel you could do something that is a bit better in doing what you are trying to do.  A crm like act is a bit more than just a contact list to look up customers in, it helps you manage the account...follow their purchases, alert you when you haven't heard from them in a while, let you know trends as well as their weekly, monthly, quartly, yearly, 5 year, etc totals.  

 

square peg in a round hole, you have a lot of filing to do to make it work, vs getting a solution talored to do what you want.  There are some free/open source crm solutions out there. 

[conna]

I thought that excel does that already. Or that data in cells on one worksheet can modify another worksheet.  

[Ice_Blue]

  On 20/07/2015 at 16:01, Sk8Surfr said:

We have 10 sales people who handle different accounts.  Right now I update 10 different excel worksheets every month so they have updated figures of how much those customers spent last month.  I am basically opening/closing 10 different workbooks.  And then lets say someone leaves and we hire someone new I then have to create a new sheet and transfer the accounts.

 

I would love to be able to have ONE master sheet and a field with a salespersons initials and then I update that one sheet monthly it automatically updates 10 individual sheets for the sales people.

 

Hope that makes sense.

When you open Microsoft Access 2013 (not sure about 2010) you can choose from a selection of database templates.

The one you are looking for is the "Desktop Northwind 2007 Sample Database".

 

Click on this and enter a name and path for the database. It will be downloaded and opened directly in Access.

 

See if this is something like what you want.

If so, this database can be easily modified to more suit your needs.

 

The Northwind Traders sample database contains the sales data for a fictitious company called Northwind Traders, which imports and exports specialty foods from around the world.

[f5s4t3]

Connect an Access database to your workbook

 

It's certainly possible. There are many things to consider though: data integrity, data security, data consistency. There are too many moving and distinct parts. I would consider what sc302 said, and said well: don't reinvent, you probably don't have the time, the support or the experience. Besides, already built solution will sound good when you're about 10-15% into this new, heavy thing and you realize expertise doesn't happen overnight. 

[kaborka]

Your scenario sounds like a good use of MS Access. Keep all your data in one Access .mdb file, and modify your spreadsheets to query the mdb and refresh the contents.  If you like, you can build forms to make it easier to keep the Access data up to date.  An alternative is to use the free version of MS SQL, which offers a better database (full use of T-SQL) but doesn't have the built-in forms development that Access offers. (However, an Access front-end can use a SQL back-end db.)

 

If the xls is just serving as a report and not being used for calculation, you could use Access Reports or SQL Reports instead of distributing the xls files. That way the reports would always be current and the spreadsheets would not need to have embedded queries.  Reports can be exported to xls if desired.

[+BudMan MVC]

I have to agree with sc302 here, why are you wanting to reinvent the wheel here.  There are lots of companies that do this for their bread and butter.. Something like sugarcrm which does have a FREE community version if you don't want to just license its use.  Salesforce, Zoho crm 2 other major players in the CRM market.