I have a small meat processing business operating under USDA inspection. Right now, all my records are paper. I want to be as paperless as possible. My goal is an electronic database, with data entered via forms on a table and computer. A friend with a maintenance services business created an Access database for his business and it does almost everything I want to do. Another friend who uses Access to manage projects across a large organization advises me to use Excel, saying that both Excel and Access can meet my need and Excel will be easier to manage. I have been reading about Excel and Access databases. It appears to be a choice between data analysis and data management. I think I want more data analysis then data management. While I appreciate my friends input, I am looking for some input from a real subject matter expert. I keep the following types of data.
Customer information (name, address, etc.)
Customer Invoice information (products purchased, services provided, customer, cost, etc.)
Sanitation inspection data (required by regulation, no numerical data, basically pass/fail with minimal text boxes, I need the ability to generate statistical process control on this data)
Production data (some required by regulation, both numerical values, lot numbers, and pass/fail type data, need the ability to generate statistical process control on this data, more importantly I need the ability to generate an alert if a certain condition exists, for example a critical product parameter is not met or a required monitoring event did not happen). It is essential that I can link production data back to customer invoice data in case of a product recall (regulatory requirement)
Basic business management tasks: payroll, inventory management, maintenance costs, ability to calculate profit/loss on different products/services provided, supplies purchases, etc. I want the ability to create forms to gather data and create reports to track my business and meet certain regulatory requirements.
Customer information (name, address, etc.)
Customer Invoice information (products purchased, services provided, customer, cost, etc.)
Sanitation inspection data (required by regulation, no numerical data, basically pass/fail with minimal text boxes, I need the ability to generate statistical process control on this data)
Production data (some required by regulation, both numerical values, lot numbers, and pass/fail type data, need the ability to generate statistical process control on this data, more importantly I need the ability to generate an alert if a certain condition exists, for example a critical product parameter is not met or a required monitoring event did not happen). It is essential that I can link production data back to customer invoice data in case of a product recall (regulatory requirement)
Basic business management tasks: payroll, inventory management, maintenance costs, ability to calculate profit/loss on different products/services provided, supplies purchases, etc. I want the ability to create forms to gather data and create reports to track my business and meet certain regulatory requirements.
