Excel Spreadsheet in Access

[jquest]

Hi;

I have a database that keeps track of customers and work done for them. Some
customers are repeat customers many times over, ie more than 100 records for
them.

I keep track of them in the database as well, but because of the volume we
also have a spreadsheet. We use the spreadsheet to do 'what if' scenarios to
schedule installations under different criteria. It could be that certain of
their installations are time sensitive and have to be done by a certain
time, or it could be that the equipment required could be specialised
enought that it won't be available for a certain time.

I want to avoid muddying up the database with extra field to deal with these
issues, as they don't pertain to the vast majority of our customers. As
well, I don't let anyone input data into the database until all the t's are
crossed and i's dotted.

What I would like to do is embed that spreadsheet into the database so that
it is always available from within the database, and then when the
installation is ready to go ahead, I could just pull in the data for that
particular installation and it would automatically fill the fields in for
me.

Is this possible? and how can I do it?

If all I can do is embed the spreadsheet in the db and then have to maually
enter each field I could live with that also. The prime requirement is that
I can access the spreadsheet from within the db and that the spreadsheet is
actually stored within the db (so that when I back up the db onto my
thumbdrive to take home for the night to work on, I have everything in one
file.)

TIA

[pietlinden]

jquest wrote:

Hi;

I have a database that keeps track of customers and work done for them. Some customers are repeat customers many times over, ie more than 100 records for them.

I keep track of them in the database as well, but because of the volume we also have a spreadsheet. Not sure how that's relevant. You could push all the data to Excel
from within Access to do all your WhatIf scenarios...
I want to avoid muddying up the database with extra field to deal with these issues, as they don't pertain to the vast majority of our customers. As well, I don't let anyone input data into the database until all the t's are crossed and i's dotted.
Is the convenience of having one field THAT big of a deal? So it
doesn't apply ot the majority of the cases.... so what? In the event
that it does, is this information useful? This idea of not inputting
everything into the database until... is somewhat odd. If there are
certain fields that are *required*, then that's one thing. Set them to
be required at table level. Otherwise, I'm not sure why you don't just
dump the data into the DB.
What I would like to do is embed that spreadsheet into the database so that it is always available from within the database, and then when the
installation is ready to go ahead, I could just pull in the data for that particular installation and it would automatically fill the fields in for me.

Umm... no... you could LINK to the SS, or import the values to a table.
Those are your only options. Sounds like you mean you'd like to link
to the SS. File -> Get External Data -> Link ->Type: Spreadsheet....

If you link to the SS, if you change the data in the SS, you'll see if
you query/look at the linked table in Access... play around with a few
dummy files. Experiment.