Access Versus Excel? (When To Use Each of Them)

When to use Access?

In very general terms, Access is the best choice when you have to track and record data regularly, and then display, export, or print subsets of that data. Access forms provide a more convenient interface than an Excel worksheet for working with your data. You can use Access to automate frequently performed actions, and Access reports let you summarize data in printed or electronic form. Access provides more structure for your data; for example, you can control what types of data can be entered, what values can be entered, and you can specify how data in one table is related to data in other tables. This structure helps you ensure that only the correct types of data are entered.

Access stores data in tables that look much the same as worksheets — but Access tables are designed for complex querying in relation to data stored in other tables.

Use Access when you:

Anticipate many people working in the database and you want robust options that safely handle updates to your data, such as record locking and conflict resolution.
Anticipate the need to add more tables to a data set that originated as a flat or nonrelational table.
Want to run complex queries.
Want to produce a variety of reports or mailing labels.

When to Use Excel?

As a spreadsheet program, Excel can store large amounts of data in workbooks that contain one or more worksheets. However, instead of serving as a database management system, such as Access, Excel is optimized for data analysis and calculation. You can use this flexible program to build models for analyzing data, write simple and complex formulas to perform calculation on that data, pivot the data any way that you want, and present data in a variety of professional looking charts.

Use Excel when you:

Require a flat or nonrelational view of your data instead of a relational database that uses multiple tables, and when your data is mostly numeric.
Frequently run calculations and statistical comparisons on your data.
Want to use PivotTable reports to view hierarchical data in a compact and flexible layout.
Plan to create charts regularly and want to use the new charting formats that are available in Excel.
Want to emphasize your data by using conditional formatting icons, data bars, and color scales.
Want to perform sophisticated what-if analysis operations on your data, such as statistical, engineering, and regression analysis.
Want to keep track of items in a simple list, either for personal use or for limited collaboration purposes.

Using Access and Excel Together

There may be times that you would want to take advantage of the benefits that both programs have to offer. For example, you created a worksheet in Excel in which you can calculate and analyze the data, but the worksheet has become too large and complex, and many other users need to have access to the data.

At this point, you might want to import or link your worksheet into Access and use it as a database instead of working with it in Excel. Or, perhaps you have data in an Access database for which you want to create some detailed Excel PivotTable reports and professional looking Excel charts.

No matter which program you use first, you can always transfer the data from one program to the other, where you can continue to work with it. With or without a data connection, you can bring data into Access from Excel (and vice versa) by copying, importing, or exporting it.

Source: https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/office/using-access-or-excel-to-manage-your-data-09576147-47d1-4c6f-9312-e825227fcaea Links to an external site.