Create historic database out of Excel files

[Nipius]

Hi all,

As this is my first post, let me start with showing some gratitude upfront. I am part of several Excel forums and am always positively surprised by the great help I receive.

I have started recently started using Access. It has been rather basic so far, but I want to take a next step and have some difficulties on how to do so. Let me explain what I want to realize.

Context
On a monthly base, I receive three Excel files with data on our employees (over 100.000). Each report has a different purpose.

• One contains general information, like the function, work level, et cetera.
• Another one contains information on talent related data.
• The third one has more personal information like country of birth, et cetera.

All files contain the unique ID's for all these employees. With an Excel macro, I merge the data together into one Excel file.

Issue
As said, I receive this information on a monthly base. My intention is to create an Excel tool, where I for example easily can find the number of months an employee has experience within a specific function. Ideally, I want to show in Excel the current details of the employee, including historical information on some specific values.
Merging the information together in Excel is impossible. Due the large size of employees, the file becomes too big to handle. My reasoning therefore is to create an Access database, feeding into my Excel tool.



Questions

1. The main question is of course, does the above make sense to you? Or would you go for a different solution?
2. If the above makes sense, what would be the best way forward?

As I mentioned at the start of this post, I am relatively new to Access and might therefore ask thinks you expect me to already know. Please let me know if that is the case

[ranman256]

Yes, access is the answer.
you can set up the excel files to import them all with the click of a button.
import new records, update existing,
and import their sub tables as well.

then producing relevant reports will be much better than excel.