A powerful database that lets you organize your data as you like
June 24, 2021

A powerful database that lets you organize your data as you like

Peggi Wolfe | TrustRadius Reviewer
Score 9 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User

Overall Satisfaction with Microsoft Access

I work in the global programs department at a state university. I am not an expert, I don't know coding, but I do have extensive experience with Microsoft Access. Microsoft Access is being used in our department for databases to keep data about attendance at events, services performed, club dues and fees, the department bank account, and department orders. (I don't know if anyone else at the university uses it; most use MS Excel). I not only use Microsoft Access in my current position, I also used it extensively in my previous position (medical researcher) and built for the department an orders database, cell storage and retrieval database and a database for shipments of standardized adult bone marrow stem cells in liquid nitrogen to researchers all over the world. I am the only one in our current department who knows how to use Microsoft Access and thus I'm the only one who uses it, but I use it for the benefit of the department by quickly pulling up information that has to be tracked for reports needed for grants that we work under and other types of information. I designed and created all the elements used in the databases, tables, forms, reports, and macros. I've input all the data from the different events, clubs, services, and departmental accounts. I recently created the orders database so that the person in our department who does the orders can quickly enter all the order information that is input into our university order system into the database and then quickly find specific info about those orders. I find Microsoft Access helps our department function more efficiently.


  • Generates information about department events, services, orders, etc. quickly and in report form.
  • Easy to design forms and reports with drag and drop components. You don't need to know coding.
  • The ability to link tables and queries to get all the info needed for forms and reports
  • Forms and reports are easy to customize and edit.
  • Easily report your data grouped and sorted by any field
  • Microsoft Access has not really changed at all for several years. It might be nice to see some upgrades and changes.
  • The help info is often not helpful. Need more tutorials for Microsoft Access to show how to do specific things.
  • Be careful naming objects such as tables, forms, etc. Names that are too long can get cut off in dialog boxes to choose a table, form, report, etc. So, I wish they would have resizable dialog boxes to allow you to see objects with long names.
  • I wish it could show me objects that are not in use in the database for current queries, tables, reports, forms, and macros. That way unused objects can be deleted without worrying about losing a report or query because you deleted the underlying object.
  • Relational database with the ability to pull data from multiple tables to create queries
  • Creating reports on events held by our department with important data collected
  • Ability to import data from Excel into Access or export Access tables into Excel
  • Having pre-defined macros that can be customized to open specific reports or forms, etc.
  • Easily change what data is included in reports or forms by editing previous queries to select new criteria
  • Microsoft Access has had a mostly positive impact on our business objectives in that most of our work is funded by grants and those grants need reports with data about our projects. Microsoft Access makes getting and organizing that data very easy.
  • Another positive is that since it is built on an Excel backbone, Excel files can be easily imported into Microsoft Access and also it is easy to export Microsoft Access reports, data sheets, etc. into Excel and some other programs as well. That might help more people who already use Excel learn how to work in a database.
  • I can't really think of a negative impact other than not many people at my workplace have ever used or understand how to use a database. Most people tend to use Excel rather than a database, like Microsoft Access.
I haven't really used another database product other than Microsoft Access since the mid-90s. I don't even remember which program I did use, but needless to say, it did not have as much functionality nor was it as user friendly as databases today. So I really can't say how Microsoft Access stacks up against them.

Do you think Microsoft Access delivers good value for the price?

Yes

Are you happy with Microsoft Access's feature set?

Yes

Did Microsoft Access live up to sales and marketing promises?

Yes

Did implementation of Microsoft Access go as expected?

Yes

Would you buy Microsoft Access again?

Yes

Microsoft 365 (formerly Office 365), Adobe PhotoShop, Canva
Microsoft Access is very well suited for collecting and organizing data in tables, and then using those tables to build relationships between tables using a common field, so you can build queries to find specific types of data over several related tables. Having a relational database is the best way to customize queries, forms, and reports. There are some built-in statistical or mathematical functions, which allow you to generate meaningful statistics to a certain degree. For generating reports and forms on specific related data, Microsoft Access is much better suited. It is less appropriate for statistical analysis, creating charts, and graphs. Microsoft Excel is much better for charts, graphs, and utilizing formulae
and statistical functions to visually present data in graphic form.