Should I use Access for...

[SandyMcc]

Hello everyone out there! I have a serious issue at the non-profit I work at. They have decided to use a database called Personify and it has just been the biggest joke for the past 2 years that I've been working in it. I am by no means any IT professional or developer. I have just been using databases for 20 years now doing a lot of data entry and such. So my biggest problem I am having is that they don't give us any way to export data through reports after I have entered data. For example, I am currently tracking over 300 volunteer records and entering background check information, and activating the volunteers. I have to keep a separate Excel sheet with their constituent ID #s, names, email addresses, and I log who I have marked active and whose background checks I've entered. They can't seem to give me a way to export a report with this data. Any time I ask for reports they tell me it cost them money from the original company they bought the database from (???)

Another example is our programs we offer. We offer support groups and education presentations and I have to attach staff and/or volunteers to those meetings. They put goals on our staff members where they have to use a certain amount of volunteers for these programs. I can't pull any reports that show what staff members have held the meetings. There's no data field to enter "staff" member. There's a complicated report they do have that shows what volunteers are attached to each meeting (program), but I can't tell how many meetings my staff member Jane Doe held. They lump them all together as non-volunteer held meetings.

I haven't worked in Access for many years so I'd have to do refresher trainings and build my database from scratch since there's not really any reports I could upload into Access. Getting reports from our National office is like pulling teeth. They have their own portal they build reports through and they won't build anything unless multiple chapters yell at them to create one. However, I am keeping my own Excel workbook, with a lot of tabs, so I could potentially upload that to start my database in Access. I would love to be able to pull reports for my boss when she asks for them instead of telling her that National doesn't give us a way to pull that data.

Do you guys think it would be worth my time to learn Access again and build my own database for my Chapter to use? I have three volunteers that help me with the Personify database so I can put them on that one and I can manage my Access database.

I would love and appreciate any advice from anyone! Thank you so much in advance for your time and advice!

[ranman256]

Yes, use Access for this. It can build reports , by asking any question like:
who did what in this year / month,
what is the history with him/her,
etc..

you can port all the excel data into the db tables and update from then on in Access.

It can also be 'programmed' via macros, so you don't have to know any code.
To build a macro you just pick from a list of events: open a form, show a query, etc.
It's a great app to learn to use.

[SandyMcc]

Thank you so much! I will do that, and I am sure I will be asking more questions later!

[ssanfu]

Where is the database located? By that I mean is the dB on your computer, a LAN, Cloud based, etc.
Is it split?
Is the FE Web based?
Do you know the dB engine is? SQL Server? MySQL? Oracle?


Is there any way you could link (using ODBC) Access to the current tables so you don't have to re-create the wheel?

[SandyMcc]

Where is the database located? By that I mean is the dB on your computer, a LAN, Cloud based, etc.
Is it split?
Is the FE Web based?
Do you know the dB engine is? SQL Server? MySQL? Oracle?


Is there any way you could link (using ODBC) Access to the current tables so you don't have to re-create the wheel?

The database that my company uses is Personify. I don't know enough about computers to be able to answer your questions. Our National office has IT and developer teams that manage it. I have been working as a Chapter database coordinator for a few years now and it just seems crazy that they can't offer us ways to pull reports on data that we enter.

My current process is the following; I enter constituents, mark them as volunteers, enter their contact information and background checks. I have over 300 volunteer records that I am trying to clean up so we can get them loaded to our new volunteer database they launched way too soon, by the way. In order to do that I have to make sure all of our volunteers are marked as volunteers, what kind of volunteer (education or support), determine what duplicates need to be merged which they don't allow us to do and can't even seem to do for us! I have to make sure each volunteer record has an email address, and it's frustrating because the records that don't have email addresses are attached to meetings. It's just a big cluster you-know-what. From day one when they gave us Personify to manage our Programs department they gave us stupid rules like we only needed names and zip codes of constituents to enter them. We track all of our meetings (support groups and educational presentations), and all registrants and attendees. We have to enter every registrant from a sign-in sheet where they sign their name in cursive. I have volunteers that enter the names. They can't read the names so there might be a Jean Daniel, a Jean Daniels, and a Jeanene Daniels, so there's hundreds -maybe thousands of duplicates.

I have to keep my own Excel workbook in order to manage all of this data that I am entering into Personify because they do not give us any way to print a report. I have emailed our HelpDesk dozens of times trying to get help, but they tell us they're working on the reports, and they are working on a merging process, blah blah blah. In the meantime, I have to enter everything in Personify then enter everything in Excel. Here's what my workbook looks like:

1st tab "Working On":



2nd tab "Need More Info":


3rd tab "Dups - need to merge":


4th tab "Not Priority":


5th tab is all contact info
6th tab is all meetings and id#s that are attached to the meetings
7th tab is all constituents and id#s I need to make inactive since the volunteers come and go so often.

So this has been my work-around to trying to figure out what data needs to be updated since they are apparently not doing a good job of setting Personify up properly for us to manage this data. I am so overwhelmed that I just don't know what to do. Creating an Access database was an idea I had and I was hoping to be able to manage my data that way instead of this Excel workbook which is becoming ridiculous

What I need is a fresh report every day (since I also have volunteers trying to help me update this information in Personify). The report would show:

1. Anyone marked as an active volunteer
2. Volunteer type (support group, education, or general programs)
3. Their Constituent ID #
4. The primary email address associated with that id #
5. If background check is marked as clear
6. If the record is attached to a meeting
7. Primary Address
8. Primary Phone #

[SandyMcc]

Oh, I forgot that we even have a Google Sheet where we track each support group facilitator volunteer and their agreements that they have to turn in and also the facility that hosts the support groups so that's two agreements and also their monthly sign-in sheets that are tracked on that sheet. I was hoping to incorporate that into the Access database too!

[Micron]

SandyMcc, Access makes it very easy to create a bad database. What you can end up with is something that you will always be coming back here to try and get fixed one way or another. To support complex functions (and most business applications are complex) requires a lot of know how if you want to keep others from thinking that you don't know what you're doing. Be warned that there is a big learning curve if you want it to work properly without a lot of hacking.

You need to worry about
- what autonumber fields are not
- primary and foreign keys
- entity/attribute relationships and understanding normalization
- what not to have in object names plus what words you should not use in names
- why to not use calculated fields or multivalue fields
- not keeping objects (files) inside an Access database
- how queries work and when to use what type
- how reports group and sort
- etc, etc, etc.
and then if you want the db to be robust, you need to learn some vba code or else you're at the mercy of macros and what happens when they fail. Not saying you should not learn - just be aware that you can't rush this if you want to shine.

On another note, I can't help but wonder if you're not running the place, then why bang your head against the wall trying to move someone who can't be persuaded? Sure, you can see a better way and maybe at not much cost. However, one thing I learned during 40 years in the workplace is that if those who make the decisions can't be convinced of a need, then banging my head against the wall will only hurt me. In that case, they get the best I can do with what resources they give me.

[SandyMcc]

...they get the best I can do with what resources they give me.

You summed it all up in that one sentence! Thank you for playing devil's advocate; I needed to hear it. I don't want to go to all of that trouble and run into issues like you've mentioned. I do understand primary and foreign keys and queries, but there's a lot I don't know yet. I will just do the best with what resources they give me and stop "banging my head against the wall", as you put it. It's difficult for me because I like clean data and it's just not achievable with what they're giving us so it is what it is.

Thanks again for the reality check! Much appreciated.

[ssanfu]

I was going to say I saw at least 7 tables, even without seeing your spreadsheet. But I am in agreement with Micron.

If you do decide to pursue this idea, post back. There are many people good at designing tables/relationships...........


Good luck.......