Access Development advice needed

[werafa]

Hi all,
I'm working on a cost-benefit for moving an ad-hoc excel based BI system to Access. I've tidied up the excel data tables and reports, but am expecting to hit excel table size limitations shortly. I'm also a bit over the issue of version control and user 'tweaking'.

I expect 20 to 30 users with data entry roles (timesheet info etc)
I am considering PowerBI for the analytics end of things

Can anyone advise on the best way to 'share' the database across multiple offices?
Can you comment on user access and data security (I'd like to limit staff to only seeing their own entered data)?
Can you recommend what level of hosting/hosting services might be needed (if any)

Thanks
Werafa

[jonh]

MS Access is one step up from Excel. It isn't secure and it's not that great for multi user access.
As long as your 20-30 users aren't going to be concurrent it might be ok.

You get what you pay for...

[ReboLangos]

Thanks a lot for your advice, i appreite it!

[OBP]

The usual setup is an SQL/MySQL backend with an Access front end.
But if you want to control what users can see and do it will need to be controlled in the front end with VBA/Queries based on a log in.

[SamT]

I would consider keeping Excel as the Front End and using MySQL/Mariah as the Back End.

That would just be a matter of tweaking the current Excel DB queries to use Mariah.

All the BI could stay the same, and the Users would not be subjected to a surprise/shock.

Migrating data from Excel to MariaDB | DBSofts (https://www.dbsofts.com/articles/ms_excel_to_mariadb/)
Connectin Excel with MariaDB - MariaDB Knowledge Base (https://mariadb.com/kb/en/connectin-excel-with-mariadb/)

[AndrewLampi]

It seems to me that the database transfer should be supported by a good hosting that can process the information. For example, I now want to open a website, what hosting can you recommend?

[ReboLangos]

It seems to me that the database transfer should be supported by a good hosting that can process the information. For example, I now want to open a website, what hosting can you recommend?

I totally agree with you about good hosting for the database. I also recently opened an online store and was confused about choosing a good hosting for my site. I thought it was not worth buying a good hosting, but free hosting would be enough. This was a fatal mistake. Firstly, my online store just filled up with a huge amount of ads. As the author said earlier, the database simply did not have time to be processed due to faulty servers. Then I decided to switch to a higher quality hosting that is used by a huge number of well-known companies called 28msec.com (https://www.28msec.com/).

[SamT]

database transfer should be supported by a good hosting
That is backward thinking.

First find a Host.
Research what programs they use: Probably, at least, Apache, Perl, and some SQL database. (AKA: LAMP (https://www.linux.com/training-tutorials/easy-lamp-server-installation/),) MySQL, (Now Mariah,) is very popular with Web Hosts.
Convert your Excel DataBase to theirs and FTP your DB to their servers.

It is not the business of Web Hosts to convert Excel DBs to another.

If you are unable to DIY, I suggest you go to http://www.vbaexpress.com (http://www.vbaexpress.com/)/ (The Forum owners,) and seek Professional help.

Almost all Web Servers run Unix or Linux. So you might want to install a BareBones Linux on an old cheap computer and duplicate the Stack your chosen Host uses. While I would prefer LinuxFromScratch (http://linuxfromscratch.org/)as a learning tool, You can use the "easier" GNU/Linux (https://www.getgnulinux.org/en/linux/) as the OS