Spreadsheets are not good databases! And paper-based systems are a liability.

If you rely on spreadsheets to manage your important data, or you are still operating on paper, you need to consider a modern, relational database application.

A custom Access database solution can be tailored to your exact specifications. You decide what it stores, how it looks, its features, and what other systems it communicates with. And a custom, multi-user Access database solution can be implemented in less time and at a lower cost than web apps, or customizing so called ‘off-the-shelf’ solutions.

Our Access databases take full advantage of the built-in strengths of Excel and Word to extend the power of your custom solution. Access is great for storing, editing, and querying large amounts of data. It can also produce nicely formatted reports, including basic graphs. But it isn’t the best tool for reports with complex structure or formatting. Nor is it the best tool for analyzing and visualizing data. That’s where Automation comes in.​

The data in your Access database can be pushed to Word in order to leverage that product’s superior formatting abilities. While mail-merge can be used for batches of letters, labels, and simple boiler-plate documents, it cannot be used for complex reports such as multi-page insurance forms or heavily formatted documents with complicated structure. These are handled using VBA Automation. Automation allows the database to create Word documents from scratch, or to dynamically modify a Word template based on criteria as it is being built. And this is all done at the click of a button in your Access database.

The data in your Access database can be exposed to Excel files and templates for analysis and visualizations, in a number of ways:

• Access pushes data to Excel (static)
• Excel pulls data in from Access (static)
• Excel file can be linked to Access (dynamic)

​The most beneficial arrangement is where an Excel template file is linked to live Access data. No more creating new files for each month/quarter/year. A single Excel file can project many years’ worth of data which can be filtered down to meet your current need. All the data in the Excel file can be analyzed and visualized using the powerful Power Pivot tool along with custom measures built using the DAX language.

Designing custom Access database applications is the largest part of our business. We excel at taking complex, data-intensive processes and distilling them down to feature-rich, easy-to-use, multi-user applications. Whether upgrading your paper-based processes or taming ‘spreadsheet sprawl‘, custom Access databases make good sense. Even if you think your situation is too complicated, let’s talk. We love a good challenge.