Linking Files

[Xishem]

I'm trying to quote out a price to someone for developing a set of documents to keep track of city billing and I'm wondering whether it's possible to link documents in such a way where a user can input customer information into a database file, then an Excel file can run through and display each value from the Access file into columns under the correct headers, have Excel calculate values from that, and finally set up a Publisher or Word file to grab information from the Excel spreadsheet using Mail Merge to be printed. There also has to be a way to keep track of past bills and payments.

Also, I don't know a whole lot about Access. I'm not sure if there would be a way to easily skip the Excel step or anything. Any ideas as far as that goes would be welcomed.

Additionally, any thoughts or ideas upon whether this might be possible, what would be involved, and how accessible and easy it would be for a low-tech computer user to use would be great. Thanks.

 

[TonyJollans]

It's all possible! In principle you can set up a database in Access (or any other RDBMS, with an Access front end) and do whatever calculations you want with the input data, although some types of calculation might be easier in Excel. You could then use the results as source data for an Access Report, or a Word Mail Merge. Again in principle, none of this is inherently difficult - it depends on the complexity of the data, and the user requirements. Making things accessible to low-tech users is exactly what the analyst and programmer do - it is the skill they are employed for.

In all honesty, if you have to ask these basic questions that suggest you know little of any of the applications involved, you are probably not the person to be putting together a quote on your own.

Enjoy,
Tony

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[macropod]

Hi Xishem,

Following on from Tony's post, you may not even need Excel to be involved in the process. Depending on what you've got, you may be able to use Word to do a mailmerge with the Access data and perform whatever calculations are required along the way.


Cheers
[MS MVP - Word]

 

[macropod]

Hi Xishem,

I see you've posted the same question at:

http://www.theofficeexperts.com/forum/showthread.php?t=11544

Please go to:

http://www.excelguru.ca/node/7

and read the advice there.


Cheers
[MS MVP - Word]