access vs excel

[karin mercurio via AccessMonster.com]

Hi, I am helping a friend who is fairly computer illiterate organize the
information for his store/wine. I should say that I use excel quite alot,
but mainly as a spreadsheet for numeric calculations. Aside for sorting and
subtotals, I've not had much to do with the data base side. Access I am
learning now. I should say that the "user" has very basic computer skills,
and knows a little excel, but just since last month.
Since he has various kinds of data to work with (inventory, suppliers,
reps, orders) it seemed like access would be the way to go, since I could
put it together for him and leave him with forms, queries and reports all
set up. It seemed like if I made it simple I should be able to set up
something basic. Whereas with excel, although he knows something about the
program, to get any information out of the raw data he would have to do a
lot more work, each time he wanted to get basic info (a list of invoices to
pay, how much wine ordered by each rep etc) since it doesn't really seem
like I can really automate too much in excel.
Anyway, suddenly comes up that he doesn't have access on his computer
(didn't install, can't find the office cd that he installed from). I can
either make him get access, or I need to learn the database side of excel
better. Is it possible to make excel less clunky, and have reports,
queries preset up? I'm really liking Access, but maybe it's just that I
don't know enough about that side of Excel?
Sorry so long, and thanks

 

[Rick B]

First, building a system to run an entire store is quite an undertaking.
You make it sound like you will throw this together in the next few days for
this guy. I'd probably think about how much work you intend to put into
this. Especially if you have to make it Computer-Illiterate-Proof (read as
fool-proof).

There are TONS of canned solutions out there on the shelves. You might
think about finding a Point-of-sale system from a software store.

If you do decide to do this, he would need to have Microsoft Office
PROFESSIONAL to use ACCESS. You could either purchase the Professional
edition or you can buy the Developer's edition and then you could provide
your friend with your database application and a run-time version of Access.

As far as writing it in Excel, I can't imagine a non-computer-user trying to
run their store with a series of spreadsheets.

All this is just my opinion, you may get others.

Good Luck,

 

[Pat Hartman]

I agree with Rick. Although Access is certainly a good tool for this
project, I think that you are seriously underestimating its complexity.
Quickbooks will do most of what is necessary. It is relatively inexpensive
(~$200, I think) and can easily handle the day-to-day accounting needs of a
small business.

 

[karin mercurio via AccessMonster.com]

You're probably right, but I should have said thatA) he's not using it to
handle financial stuff, just to deal with inventory, orders, and creating
wine list, and statments about outstanding to various reps and B) that I'm
in Italy where quickbooks, or indeed many little specialized programs
aren't really available. Plus the fields and information he works with are
more or less specialized for his type of business (which is pretty small) .
The fact is, Access (with a lot of help from the wizards) was working out
really well (just 4 tables, pretty straightforward) , so it was a blow to
find out he didn't have on his computer. You pretty much confirmed what I
was thinking about excel though.

Don't know where this leaves me, but thanks for your help.

 

[gls858]

You're probably right, but I should have said thatA) he's not using it to
handle financial stuff, just to deal with inventory, orders, and creating
wine list, and statments about outstanding to various reps and B) that I'm
in Italy where quickbooks, or indeed many little specialized programs
aren't really available. Plus the fields and information he works with are
more or less specialized for his type of business (which is pretty small) .
The fact is, Access (with a lot of help from the wizards) was working out
really well (just 4 tables, pretty straightforward) , so it was a blow to
find out he didn't have on his computer. You pretty much confirmed what I
was thinking about excel though.

Don't know where this leaves me, but thanks for your help.

Quickbooks can be purchasaed from their site:

http://quickbooks.intuit.com/

It really is pretty slick. We use the Enterprise Version.
For your need one of the other version should work.
Handles inventory,vendors,invoices, reports etc.

gls858

 

[Pat Hartman]

Purchasing Access will cost as much as purchasing QuickBooks Pro.
QuickBooks Pro represents thousands of hours of development effort.