Hello. I'm new here and pretty much a novice at Access. My boss wants to start using Access tables to organize our safety training among other things. We've conceptualized a great system of using Excel and SharePoint for reviewing and/or entering data into our database. The first problem I've been encountering is this;

I've linked an Access query as read-only to an Excel spreadsheet for the company view data that changes daily. I did this through the Excel "From Access" option on the "Get External Data" group in the ribbon. I've noticed when the spreadsheet is opened before I open my database, I'm locked out of my database. I've also notice after about 60 seconds the database allows me to enter. I know this from watching the folder where the database is located. When I open the spreadsheet, the "Record-Locking Information" file appears. After about 60 seconds it disappears. Is this normal? I cannot have several members of the company locking me out everytime they go to check my stats. And if I wanted the other uses to be able to alter or add data, would that lock me out too?

Local System
Windows 7 Professional 64 bit

MS Office 2010




Any help is appreciated.