Assess for small church databae

[VETWB]

I have been named a trustee for my small church. They have some excel spreadsheets but I would like to use Access 365


I need some help.

[ssanfu]

Welcome to the forum....


"Old Programmer's Rule" is this: If you can't do it on paper, then you can't do it in Access. Until you can draw out your tables AND rules for how they change for each function you want to perform, you are going nowhere fast.



I stole the following from a post by Ajax:
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Access is not a bigger excel - it is completely different. Excel combines data and presentation (i.e. calculations) in a single view and the data is typically stored is 'wide and short'. Access stores data in tables and presents through queries which are then used in forms and reports. Data is stored 'narrow and tall'

Access works by using the rules of normalization - in its simplest terms, stores data only once, Excel is about as far away from normalization as you can get. Consider your list of gym member activities - how many times do you repeat the same gym members name or other details? In Access you have a table to list the members details (once), another table to list the exercises and yet another the measurements. You can even have a table of categories and instead of using the iif statement you would lookup the category for any given BPM. Benefit here is if you decided to change the category, or the BPM range it applies to, you would not have to go into the code to change it, you would change it once in the table.



And I stole the following from a post by orange:
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"I recommend you create a narrative in simple terms about your proposed database and application. You don't start building a database by identifying a Form with 3 buttons. Now, that may very well be your initial user interface, but that is not the database. It is not as easy as many think to clearly describe WHAT your business is/will be. Consider the "things" involved(entities), the particular characteristics of each(attributes) that are important for your business and how these things relate to one another (relationships). After you have the narrative, you can use pencil and paper (or whiteboard or cardboard or ...) to develop and refine a data model. Create some test data and vet your model.
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I see too many people, who have the latest HW and Access, jumping in head first think the software will build the database. They have multiple issues and can't access the data required for X and/or Y, and typically it is an issue of basic table and relationship design. Their next "rationalization" is " I've got too much invested to go back and correct the design...". Don't get yourself in that predicament.

You have to do the analysis, build a plan, set priorities......Since you have the business, you know the processes better than anyone, so analysis should be second nature-- and providing you are familiar with database concepts -- designing the database should be an iterative process and a good learning experience for you. The data model and testing/vetting will result in a blueprint for your database. Review, test, adjust, and repeat until you get the results you expect. People are here and willing to help."


Maybe start by learning about Normalization
What is Normalization? (parts 1 - 5)
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What Is Normalization, Part I: Why Normalization?