[lostindatabase]

I work for a large global engineering construction firm. I have recently been tasked with setting up a database to store all of our contractor information. This information includes

• name of company,
• contact information for the company,
• what is the general scope of work for the contractor (out of a specified list of 12, and each can have multiple),
• what regions the contractor works in (out of a specified list, and each can have multiple),
• the date we last received pre-qual information from them,
• whether they are union/non-union/both,
• what is their safety score,
• what is the last job they bid and/or won for us if any,
• and whether they are small, female, or minority owned contractor(which needs to be tracked for government work).

This information is currently housed in way too many unorganized excel files that need to be consolidated. From what I'm reading an Access database is the way to go because of one company having multiple scopes of work, multiple regions, and multiple projects, BUT there are two problems.

1. I am an Access beginner. That being said, I'm VERY computer savvy, just need some guidance and instructions.

2. The end user of this database information is NOT computer savvy and would need a very user friendly search form that they could pick from specified criteria and get a report that displays the contractors that match that criteria (for instance a contractor who specializes in scaffolding in the NW of the United States). This report would display all of the contractors who fit that criteria. I know I can set up reports that would generate that exact match, but each user is obviously going to be looking for different criteria.

So. I've read basic Access tutorials, about how to organize my data into the various tables, but when I start searching information on how to create the search form to generate the report, I seem to end up stuck. I've seen coding used in the answers, but I guess the meaning of the coding is a step beyond my current understanding.

Is Access the way to go for this database?

I have roughly 2 weeks to complete the database and search form. Is that sufficient?

Is Access user friendly that simple instructions can be given to end users of search form?

Or is there a way to solve this in Excel (which more users are familiar with)