This is how great things start. Congratulations and cheers to your efforts.

I got the sit down with the manager, spent a little over an hour going through various things.
Once i was done my Manager pulled out a "big" sheet of paper and we went over some the the ideas he was having.

On the big sheet of paper was a well fleshed out, hand drawn, map of a very big database, relationships and everything.
I've never even thought about something that big and complex let alone built something that big and complex. It's a bit overwhelming.

Turns out he has some Access skills of his own. We will be building it in collaboration with each other.

WOW! You have to be feeling great about this. Now do your best to make it happen and come here for help whenever you need it.

You may not have built something that big and complex YET, you have all the skills and tools at your disposal and it's just a combination of smaller dbs in one, so if you do it in bitesize chunks and build it up slowly you'll be there in no time :)

My mental health has taken a real hammering the past 2-3 years. The end of last year (2025) brought a heavy blow.
Up until I got talking with the manage I hadn't touched a single Excel formula or single line of VBA code in 4 months.
I lost interest in everything.
I'm more overwhelmed, and freaking out right now, at the scale of the planned project.
There is a bit of a gap between just a hobby tinkerer and actual developer. I have doubts over just how much skill I have.
On the plus side.
My manager is a great guy, has his own Access Skills, there is no time limit on when things need to be ready.

I am sorry to hear about your troubles. Alex is right though. Think of it as small tasks to get to the end goal. We are are own worst enemies at times. Don't worry about what you don't think you know and start. This project is a positive in your life. Use it to help yourself move forward. We are all here and willing to help when you need it. This is the best online community!

Hopefully working through it with no pressure you'll find your joy in building dbs again and you are more experienced than you think! Plus with someone else to bounce ideas off and work together with it sounds like it'll be a great project.
I look forward to seeing progress updates and as the others have said we're here to help whenever :-)

After demonstrating some of my just for projects, my manager went over some of his thoughts and ideas and we discussed thing for a while.
He wanted me to build an Access Database for the company.
My manager started things off with building the tables and relationships and setting up dummy data for testing.

after approximately 23 hours over 9 days I submitted a version for review back on Sunday 21st June.
Yesterday (23rd June) my manager gave me feedback on the system.

He likes it.😊

He will now be setting it up with real data with a view to starting trial use in a single office starting 29th June.
Then using feedback, from two other colleagues in that office, make changes.

In total 3 offices, 8 computers (typically only 5 at any one time) , 9 colleagues will be using the system.

This is fantastic news, hope it all goes well and I'm sure everyone will reap the benefits

Wonderful progress Debbie You are helping the company and employees operate better. This has to feel good.

Joe It's a strange feeling. I really don't know how to describe it. So many thoughts and emotions all at once.

The next couple of months will be interesting as everybody slowly gives their feedback on things.

I'm confident in how it works, but having never had to think about the User Interface before (only me using it, or it just sits idle taking up storage space).
I'm keen to get the feedback on how easy it is to navigate and use.

Remember to not take changes personally. Think of them as chances to learn and improve. The more people feel they can share their thoughts, the better the application will get, and the more people will want to use it.

What Joe said is especially true.  I have found bugs in my database as it runs on other people's machines and some things that are intuitive for me, as the creator, are not intuitive for others.  It is really like a collaboration with the users to make the database the best it can be.  Don't forget to have fun.  :)