Redesign of Survey Form / import data from Excel

[OmegaRed]

Hello I am new to this forum. Thanks in advance for the help. I would consider myself a high level user of excel, but have hardly ever used access.

For work, I have a yearly report that we turn into the EPA. In the past, we mailed out surveys to 5 different groups/businesses - Commercial / Waste Haulers / Recyclers / Industrial / Government. These surveys collect information about waste generated / recycled material, along with updating the companies contact person, email, mailing address in order to have a current mailing list. If they don't return an electronic survey, then we will have to have a list that we can snail mail surveys and manually import the data.

This year, I want to create a form (via infopath) that can be posted on our website, which will return the information into a database that can easily be manipulated and have certain information redacted (business name, contact etc etc). We group the returned forms into generic SIC codes (Standard Industrial Classification) - example: metal work, tool and die shops, etc.

I also have to take the previous years returned data (which is in excel currently) and streamline that data with the current years to get everything on the same page so to speak.



My question is where should I start? Should I create the database first and then try to get all the fields named the same, or should I create the form first and work backwards?

[NTC]

your web form issue trumps any database issue..... I would start there for sure, and I'm not sure I would necessarily default to Infopath - but that depends on your overall environment....there are quite a few different alternatives when one has a web server involved.