I just wanted to share this email I received today, as well as my response:

"I like your training videos, but first need to know if Access right for me. Present state: using Excel to record all weekly shipment details to customers. Each shipping week is separated by weekly tabs. Typical # of rows per week is 50 depending upon the mode of shipment. Is there a benefit of spending the time and expense developing a Access database?"

Totally up to you. I've always been an "if it ain't broke, don't fix it" kinda guy. If you're happy with your current solution, keep it. I'm not going to try to "sell you" on Access. 50 rows per week isn't an outrageous number, and Excel can certainly handle it.

If you feel, however, that you're spending a lot of time doing things that could be automated (looking up customer info, copying formulas, etc.) then switch from Excel to Access. Yes, there's a bit of a learning curve, but the time and expense of learning Access is usually rewarded with a 10-fold increase in productivity and time savings later.

Watch my Access v. Excel video and hopefully that will help you decide.