Is Excel the best MS Office tool to use for this business applicat

[Joe]

I am trying to help a friend who has been in the Excavation business for over
30 years. For all this time, he has been calculating and writing out his
project estimates (quotes) by hand. I met with him this past weekend and told
him that I would try to help him automate (computerize) his operations. This
is where my question comes in.

What is the best method or the best MS Office tool to use to be able to;
a) Compile and maintain my friends list of products and their cost, as well
as the use of various equipment/machinery, and labor costs? These products
change in availability as well as cost on a regular basis, so the tool we use
must be something that can easily be edited.
b) Then we need to be able to collect the information we enter into Item "a"
above, and build a usable Project Quote sheet that will include his company's
contact information; e.g. logo, name, address, phones, etc., as well as the
final cost to the potential customer for the products stored in Item "a" and
used on any particular project. This "Quote" will then need to be able to;
1) print out to hand to the customer, and/or 2) generate a secure document
(such as a password protected PDF or something similar) that can be emailed
to a customer.

I was thinking about creating an Excel spreadsheet for these items, but
would this be the best tool for both items a & b, or would another MS Office
tool better serve these needs? I have created some useful spreadsheets for
my own business needs in the past and I was thinking (hoping) that this might
be the tool for this, but my biggest concern is being able to address Item
"a", maintaining his cost items and being able to call out those items in the
quote sheet.

I thank you in advance for any suggestions.

 

[DL]

IMO, Access - provided you can 'program' it,
or maybe Small Business Accounting Pro

 

[Joseph Meehan]

That may be "best" for you. For me likely it would be Microsoft Access
the database tool, combined with Word.

The best tool is likely Access, but in order to really use Access most
people need to learn relational database theory and that is sort of like
learning a new language. Once you know the language well, it can be amazing
what it can do. You can even write an application that is easy for the
computer challenged to use.

Most people are familiar with the concept of a spreadsheet and learning
to use Excel is just taking that and offering more tools, but always using
the same mindset. Access means a new way of thinking and you have to do it
using a new language. It has a steep learning curve.

If you think you are up to it, I suggest Access. Otherwise Excel should
be able to do what you want, but given equally well done applications the
Excel application will look pale next to a good Access application for this
kind of project.

Having said that, if changes to the basic system will happen often it
MAY (or may not) be easier to maintain with Excel. It is likely going to be
more likely that the user will be able to make basic modification to formula
etc. themselves using spreadsheet.

 

[Joe]

I thank both "DL" and "Joseph Meehan" for their responses.

I was hoping that Excel with some type of interface with Word would be the
answer, although I was skeptical that Access would be the tool of choice by
many. I have little to no experience with Access, but this project may well
be my reason to learn this program.

However, the other end of this topic is the fact that my friend has no
experience with any of the MS Office programs, and very little experience
with computers. Thus I was hoping for the best in keeping this as simple as
possible by using Excel (and/or Word) since I believe these would be the
programs that I could better use and train my friend on using.

Although I also understand there are limitations to the extent of the
functionalities to what each MS Office program can manage and maintain. A
lot of which also depends on the capacity of the person creating and the
person using the end product. This is where it gets a little dicey, with
both me and my friend.

I appreciate the feedback. Thanks.

 

[ohnonotnow!]

before reinventing the wheel, and certainly before getting into the
mindbodggling world of access, give a look at the Templates provided by ms
office and its users.

i'm thinking that this guy has been doing this for 30 years on the back of
an envelope, so the solution has to be easy and intuitive, or he's going to
thank you constantly while continuing to sharpen his pencil.

even if there isn't a turnkey solution there, i'll bet there's enough to
give you some good ideas on how to procede.

you can find the Template page by clicking Office Home at the top of this page

//onnn!

 

[DL]

Maybe something here would help
http://www.databaseanswers.org/data_models/index.htm

 

[Joe]

Okay, I would now like to thank both "ohnonotnow!" for his suggestion
regarding the MS Office templates and "DL" for his hyperlink to a magnitude
of database assistance. I must agree that I am in need of keeping the
interface and the use of and the maintenance of whatever the solution may be
best for this application, as simple as possible.

FYI - Before I had joined and contacted this discussion group, which I must
say has been a great resource to me - you all have been very helpful with
your comments, I did download several of the MS Office Excel (and Word)
templates to see if they could help. Many of them offered the output
solution, although I was having difficulty in finding something that would
help in the area of creating and maintaining my friends products, product
costs, machinery, machinery use costs, and labor, etc., almost like a
database for these items.

I will do some more investigations into possibly using some kind of "pivot
tables" within Excel, although I am not sure if these are the answer to the
database management process.

I would like to repeat, I very much appreciate the feedback that I have
received from all of you who have taken the time to respond to my query.
Thank you again to each of you.

Regards, Joe
--
Joe (a user of Microsoft products since 1986)

Maybe something here would help
http://www.databaseanswers.org/data_models/index.htm

I thank both "DL" and "Joseph Meehan" for their responses.

I was hoping that Excel with some type of interface with Word would be the
answer, although I was skeptical that Access would be the tool of choice
by
many. I have little to no experience with Access, but this project may
well
be my reason to learn this program.

However, the other end of this topic is the fact that my friend has no
experience with any of the MS Office programs, and very little experience
with computers. Thus I was hoping for the best in keeping this as simple
as
possible by using Excel (and/or Word) since I believe these would be the
programs that I could better use and train my friend on using.

Although I also understand there are limitations to the extent of the
functionalities to what each MS Office program can manage and maintain. A
lot of which also depends on the capacity of the person creating and the
person using the end product. This is where it gets a little dicey, with
both me and my friend.

I appreciate the feedback. Thanks.