What are the benefits of importing data from an Access database into Excel?

Editor's Note: This post was originally published September 2018 and has recently been updated and revised for accuracy and comprehensiveness.

Microsoft Access is Excel's smarter older sister who thinks she always has a better way. In some cases she may be right. Microsoft Access has a benefits above and beyond a simple spreadsheet allowing you to quickly analyze, extract and share data as usable information. 

Access, the Next Step from Excel

A spreadsheet program like Microsoft Excel is a terrific tool for maintaining and calculating small sets of information. Excel is easy to understand and easy to use. You can sort, filter and format the data quickly and easily. Spreadsheets are ideal for creating one time analysis, they become problematic as the data grows and evolves over time. Spreadsheets are not ideal for handling hundreds of records when creating an important file for a client, a contact or an executive. It’s very easy to make errors in a spreadsheet, which then makes analysis, summing and reporting very challenging.

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Microsoft Access is an information management tool, or relational database, that helps you store information for reference, reporting and analysis. Access can also overcome the limitations found when trying to manage large amounts of information in Excel or other spreadsheet applications. 

Seven Key Benefits of a Microsoft Access Database

Cost of Development

One of the reasons why Microsoft Access is consistently the database of choice is that it is a less expensive alternative to larger database systems, such as Oracle or SQL Server, which require a tremendous amount of set up and maintenance costs. 

Software Integration

Since Access is a Microsoft Office product, it has been designed to integrate well with other products in the Microsoft Office Suite, Access is such a widely used database system that other software manufacturers are more likely to provide the ability to interface directly to Access than any other desktop database system.

ODBC (Open Database Connectivity) Compliant

Access has the ability to use data stored in Access/Jet, Microsoft SQL Server, Oracle and other ODBC compliant data containers including MySQL and PostgreSQL. Software developers and data architects have used Access to easily develop application software. Non-programmers, also known as “power users” can use Access to build simple applications. While some object-oriented techniques are supported, it falls short of being a fully object-oriented development tool.

Legacy Data

Access has the ability to easily import many data formats so that your existing data is not lost. This feature can not only save 100′s of hours of input time, but also eliminate potential human input error.

Distribution

One of the benefits of using Microsoft Access is its Jet Database format, which contains not only the application but also the data in one file. The ability to have the application and data in one file makes it extremely convenient to distribute the entire application to various users who can run the application in disconnected environments.

Scalability

If your company is growing, one of the benefits of Microsoft Access is that it has upgrade capabilities. If the size of your database is continually growing and your performance starts to suffer, you can easily upgrade to SQL Server along with an Access Data Project (ADP).

Unique Identifier

Each piece of information is assigned a unique identifier. This is extremely important since it controls that each piece of information is only entered once and eliminates human and duplication errors.

 What’s New for Microsoft Access 2016?

Access empowers you to make the most out of your information—even if you’re not a database expert. And, through newly added Web databases, Access amplifies the power of your data, making it easier to track, report and share with others.

• New themes and templates
• Larger show table dialog
• Query box to easily locate Access tools and features
• Ability to export linked data source information to Excel

Whether you’re a large corporation, small-business owner, nonprofit organization, or if you’re just looking for more efficient ways to manage your personal information, Access makes it easier to get what you need done more quickly, with more flexibility and with better results. Contact us to learn more about Microsoft Access Training to support your organizations projects.

For spreadsheet experts, it's often difficult to understand what databases offer that spreadsheets don't already have. There are several advantages of databases:

• Data structure and normalization through multiple tables
• Scalability: adding more records is free
• Data and Referential Integrity
• Queries and Reports
• Automation through Macros and VBA Modules

Table Structures and Validation

Databases make it easy to store information in one place and reference it in multiple places. For instance, customer information may be kept in a customer table where the name, address, phone number, email, etc. are kept. It is then referenced in other places such as queries, forms, and reports. If the customer's information changes, the new information is automatically updated in all the referenced places. The table designs also impose structure that lends itself to data types, validation and consistency for higher quality than what normally exists in spreadsheets. The basics of storing numeric, date, and text fields are just the beginning.

Records are Free in Databases

The biggest difference with spreadsheets is that in a database, records are free. If it's well designed, over time, new records are continually added without needing to add new fields. All the queries, forms, and reports continue to work without any changes. Different filters may be applied but the results are always consistent. There's no need to retest the formulas (cells) when new data is added. This allows accurate reports to be generated every year, quarter, month, week, day, etc.

Data and Referential integrity

With the fear of garbage in - garbage out, Access databases provide many tools to maintain data quality. Lookup lists and validation rules for individual fields and records can be easily implement in Access at the table level. Forms can add additional rules during data entry to respond to user selection and events. Access also offers referential integrity between tables to ensure data is consistently defined across tables.

Queries and Reports

Microsoft Access queries and reports let you slice and dice your data and present it in detail or summary form regardless of how the data is stored or sorted in the underlying tables. It offers a great deal of power and flexibility to analyze and present results. Using groupings, it's easy to show aggregations as the data changes and groups get added or removed.

Automation through Macros and VBA Modules

From a macro or VBA module, you can use the DoCmd.TransferSpreadsheet command to export data from an Access table or query to an Excel spreadsheet (use the acExport option). Your spreadsheet can then reference that data or import it into itself.

The TransferSpreadsheet command with the acImport option can also be used to import a spreadsheet into an Access table.

With Office/Excel automation, you can actually open an existing Excel spreadsheet from Microsoft Access, and place data in specific cells, thereby automating the updates of the data there.

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