Excel or Access?

[Neil Greenough]

I have been tasked with designing something which will monitor training for
employees. Basically, I will have the following in one table:-

- Name
- Employee Number
- Department
- Start Date
- Address
- Contact Details
- Line Manager

Then, from the above table, I would like to link this to another few tables.
These tables would be based on different types of training , ie. one table
would be IT training, another would be Admin training etc.... In these
tables, I would be putting a training date for their original training and
then I would like it to automatically work out when refresher training is
due (6 months later). Then, I would like to also put the actual date the
refresher training took place.

Now, as far as reports go, I would like to be able to look at at a glance
all people who need a specific type of training, ie. IT refresher training.
Likewise, I would like to see all those people who have not received a
specific type of training. Also, I would like to see a list of all those
people who have not had their refresher training as the date has passed.

As well, if at all possible, as people start on different dates etc, I would
like the database to kind round numbres up for me. So, say for example, I
have 15 places for IT refresher training, I would like the database to have
a look at the info and select 15 people who have the closest dates to the
actual training date available.

Is this all possible? If so, is there any templates available on the web
which I could use or does anybody already have one available?

Thanks

 

[Joseph Meehan]

I have been tasked with designing something which will monitor training
for
employees. Basically, I will have the following in one table:-

- Name
- Employee Number
- Department
- Start Date
- Address
- Contact Details
- Line Manager

Well you might not want all that in one table, but that involves a lot
of ifs and a normalizing analysis.

Yes Access can do all you ask, if you or someone knows Access well
enough. BTW Excel can also do all, or almost all of what you want, but it
would not be the best tool to use and you would also need a lot of knowledge
of Excel to do it.

I suggest Access is your tool. We will help you if you get stuck.
Access has a steep leaning curve, but it is really good once you get to the
top.

 

[Neil Greenough]

Cheers for the reply Joseph.

So how would be best to categorise my stuff? What should go in which table?
For personal info, I would definitly need name, address, email, telephone #,
email and line manager. I presume I would then create seperate tables for
the different types of training.

I would have the following types of training:-

- I.T (possibly 5 different types)
- Driver training
- Self defence training
- Admin training

Within each of these types of training, I would have a 'received date,' a
'refresher needed' date, a 'scheduled date'.

Thanks

 

[Martin Scott]

Have a look at
http://office.microsoft.com/en-gb/assistance/HP051874421033.aspx to get you
going.

 

[Jack Gillis]

Well you might not want all that in one table, but that involves a
lot of ifs and a normalizing analysis.

Yes Access can do all you ask, if you or someone knows Access well
enough. BTW Excel can also do all, or almost all of what you want,
but it would not be the best tool to use and you would also need a lot
of knowledge of Excel to do it.

I suggest Access is your tool. We will help you if you get stuck.
Access has a steep leaning curve, but it is really good once you get
to the top.

Can you name them from memory? I had to look them up!

 

[Joseph Meehan]

Can you name them from memory? I had to look them up!

Well, I can name a little over half of them from memory.

 

[Joseph Meehan]

Cheers for the reply Joseph.

So how would be best to categorise my stuff? What should go in which
table?
For personal info, I would definitly need name, address, email, telephone
#,
email and line manager. I presume I would then create seperate tables for
the different types of training.

I would have the following types of training:-

- I.T (possibly 5 different types)
- Driver training
- Self defence training
- Admin training

Within each of these types of training, I would have a 'received date,' a
'refresher needed' date, a 'scheduled date'.

Thanks

Martin give a good reference for a start.

In general, if you see the same entry in a field repeated many times,
like maybe a department where 200 people work in one department 500 in
another etc. you would want a department table. On the other hand you may
have two people with the same telephone number and address, but you would
likely not want to split out the telephone number and address for just that.

Now if you have people with four or five cars, and for some reason you
want to record that, you would want a table just for cars. Someone may have
several phone numbers, but they all might be different like home, cell,
work. But if for some reason many people in your database had more than one
work number, you might want to put that in a different table.

As you can see, it is not easy to make "rules" for this. It take
forethought to get it right from the start and it makes it easier if you get
it right from the start. Access however will look at a table for you and
suggest if it needs to be redesigned, if you ask, after the data is in the
table.

There are many factors that you will need to think about with your data,
and as you lean more about access, you will find yourself re-thinking many
times. That is good, it is part of the learning process and it is not
fatal, you can make the changes as you go. It just takes a little more
time.

Consider much of the time on your first few databases, as training.
After a while it will become automatic.

Good Luck