Microsoft Access Review
August 07, 2017
Microsoft Access Review
Score 9 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Overall Satisfaction with Microsoft Access
We have several Microsoft Access databases in use across our organization. We have a voucher database that's used to track and pay invoices and other bills. We have a database used by our accounting department as a cross-checking system for our main accounting system. Our IT department uses an Access database to track equipment inventory. Microsoft access makes it quick and easy to enter data and print reports and other forms based on that data.
- A database can be created to track almost anything- Inventory, bills, to-do lists. Since Access is included with our version of office, no additional software is needed.
- Access can import data quickly and easily from many formats like Excel or a CSV file. Microsoft Access has several wizards that can do the programming for the import.
- Advanced database programming can be done using SQL. Access can read SQL natively, so no additional software is needed.
- Multi-User functionality would be nice. IE- create a database with user logins and event tracking. This must currently be done using 3rd party add-ons.
- Copy/paste of form objects sometimes doesn't transfer all attributes. IE- copying a button from form A to form B. The button pasted into Form B doesn't always retain the font/color settings that it had on Form A.
- New menu locking mechanism would be nice. Currently you can lock down what features users see when launching Microsoft Access. Simply holding the shift key while opening the database will bypass this locking feature, however. Some sort of password protected button or menu item would be nice instead.
- Before Access, our users were processing bills using individual excel templates for each bill. Finding an individual bill among hundreds of excel files after the fact was a pain and took forever. Access reduces all those files to one database. Searching is quick and easy.
- For inventory tracking, we were using index cards previously. This involved searching through a file cabinet to find relevant information on an item. Loading the index cards into access keeps all the data in one place and makes it easily searchable. Various reports can be created and ran whenever needed.
- Our accounting database helps us to double-check our main accounting system for accuracy. Previous to Access, staff were writing entries into a giant ledger book! Staff would then have to manually match those ledger entries to the main system when doing audits. Very time consuming. The Access database gives us instant results- which our auditors love!