Is Access right for me?

[MWXA]

Greetings,

I need help in determining if Access is the best program to use to achieve the results I want. I am currently using Excel, but the results, while acceptable, are not what I want.

A series of processes are to be reviewed to see if they meet quality standards. The reviewer is assessing 9 standards which also have sub-standards

Each standard and sub-standard has compliance indicators related to the processes being reviewed. (Ex. Written policies, Evidence of documentation, Evidence of appropriate activity)

Each compliance indicator is assigned a score (1 to 5) as a measure of compliance
I am setting up a table for each sub-standard which lists the indicator and a statement of compliance and non-compliance; and the score for non-compliance (If compliant the default is 1).

What I want to do is create a report of the review (In MS Word form for further editing) and a report of the final score after the review.

The report would list each standard and sub-standard and then note whether or not the facilities is compliant with the process indicators. If non-compliant the reviewer needs to note the findings after the statement of non-compliance. The reviewer would also be able to accept or change the default score for non-compliance and would need to note the reason for change.

So, is Access what I need? I was going to ask my doctor is Access was right for me, but I couldn’t get an appointment.

BTW, my experience using Access is very limited. Consider me an aged newbie. I have even less experience using VBA and Macros. This project is more a hobby than an actual work assignment (read volunteer, not paid work).

Thanks for your help.

[wes]

Absolutely! Excel is great at certain things, especially calculating numbers, and criteria based on numbers. As soon as you say, "what happens if . . .," you need Access. With Access you can "test" your data against multiple criteria using queries; have forms to make data-entry easier; and run reports, all without having to change your underlying data.

One word of caution: I too moved my data from Excel to Access, and I didn't put enough thought into the underlying structure and normalization. The people on this board straightened me out--and still are! Instead of putting everything in one huge spreadsheet that is flat, linear, and horizontal (Excel), with Access you'll have many smaller pieces that together form the big picture you want. This way you can change or update the smaller pieces any time, and see how it affects your big picture(s).

You may want to do some reading on normalization so you don't make the same mistake I did transitioning from Excel. Basically you have to think about grouping like with like, and think about which things there will be only one of, and that will help you define your tables. And you need to think hard about what you want to be your primary key for each table; it needs to be something unique and that won't change. From this board I learned the value of using an autonumber for the PK. I had mine set up as text values so I could see them in the tables themselves, but this was limiting. By using autonumber, if I look at the tables all I see is numbers, but that doesn't matter, because in the queries, reports, and forms you can tell it to show you the text value associated with that autonumber.

You clearly have already put a lot of thought into your business rules so you're already ahead of the curve! I'm no expert, but just from what you have posted even I can see that you would need at least four tables: tblProcesses, tblStandards, tblSubStandards, tblComplianceIndicators. I know there is more to it than that, so I'd recommend that you post a new thread specifically about how to structure your database, with sentences 2-5 of your post here, so you'll get some responses that will help you actually build your database. You'll get lots of help here! Good luck.