I work in a millwork shop. I have made a number of programs in Filemaker to track jobs, profitability, material and labor estimates, etc. I really like Filemaker but as we are expanding, the cost of making Filemaker available to all the people who need to have access has made me look for alternatives. I am familiar with Excel. However some of the estimating has many variables that make a database program look best, in my opinion anyway.Many years ago I did some Basic programing and I have wondered if that wouild be the way to go. I am looking for advice. The variables I use are many species of wood at different thicknesses and from different vendors and each has their own price. Our labor is different for different tasks and different people. Excel gets unhandy with all those variables. But maybe I don't know the full capabilities of Excel. Would anyone be able to point me in the right direction? I have taken the beginners classes in Access and the thrust of the instruction is a little different that what I need.