Some people hear “Access” and think of 1990s software. But the truth? Access is still one of the most widely used database tools in the world. It integrates with Excel, Outlook, SQL Server, and countless other systems. And it’s the fastest way to build a custom tool for your office.

And I’m not kidding about the FAST part. Once you know Access and especially if you also pickup VBA programming (which is built for regular people like you and me), you will be able to automate things in a few hours or even minutes that would take days or weeks with other software programs, or they would not be able to do it at all. There just is nothing in existence that is like Access.

If you want to see an example of what can be done, take a look at this DEMO. In the A2P community I offer a course every month called “Dissect the Demo” that shows you how to do the things you see in the video.

What IS outdated is using Excel as a database. Excel is wonderful and I use it every day, but it is not a database. Access is where your data should be and, when you learn Access, you will realize that it can work so closely with Excel that it is a crime not to be using both these tools together.

Having your data in Access means CONTROL. You can easily set it up so it is impossible to enter data the wrong way or in the wrong place, or not complete some task. There is an entire industry built around cleaning Excel data, but there is nothing like that for Access. Why is that?

Its because once you are setup, the data goes in the right way or not at all! How much time and money can be saved by not having errors or conflicting data. Someone changes the quote on one spreadsheet but the change doesn’t get to the sheet that ends up being used.

With Access, all the sheets come from ONE copy of the data. Make a change and everything is updated, every report or exported Excel sheet.

Modern problems need smart, proven tools and Access is still the best tool for office automation.