giving a presentation on why accountants should learn someaccess...is what i say fairly accurate?

[xyzer]

I am not an Access expert compared to most of you, but compared to the average accountant I would probably be considered "very good" with Access. I continue to learn more every month or so and am grateful to have an ODBC connection to the SQL Server at work.

I am giving a brief presentation to a non-technical audience about the benefits of using Access generally for accountants. Can you read it and let me know if I'm way off base anywhere or if anything sounds odd to you? These have been my experiences, but I don't want to mislead anyone. Thanks

Benefits of learning Access for the Accountant:

Flexibility

--Your modern accounting package is essentially a database or set of databases with a front-end user interface. This means it has a bunch of “tables” in its “back end” filled with data from its front-end users (who key, say, invoices or journal entries, etc.). Using Access or other SQL-client based software, you can view and “manipulate” the data in these tables to produce useful reports.

--Canned Reports and other report-writer tools provided by the accounting software vendor can leave a lot to be desired. Even if they meet your needs at some point in time, you may want to see a report slightly differently inthe future. Having access to the back-end tables and knowing how to use Access or similar SQL-client software can help you tweak existing canned reports to fit your needs.

--The above is true whether your company is using Oracle, Dynamics GP, or even QuickBooks. Access to tables is accomplished using various SQL-client based software, like Crystal Reports or Microsoft Access through an ODBC connection. I have personally used Access to connect to back-end tables through an ODBC connection in $billion+ companies and in much smaller companies, in each case connecting Access to SQL Server.

--IS departments need to be on board, though. Unfortunately, there is sometimes push from those in IS and elsewhere to only allow users to use the reporting tools and canned reports available from the software vendor, but often it’s a fight worth having to get the ODBC connections. IS or others can sometimes be against allowing an ODBC connection to the database if you’re going to be pulling a lot of data, because database warehousing/mirroring may then be required which increases cost. But if you’re going to bepulling a lot of data, then it’s likely worth it to set up an ODBC connection and pay for the database warehousing/mirroing.

Efficiency

--In many cases, the work you’re currently doing with Excel can be done much more efficiently using Access

 

[Gloops]

Hello,

Just a point experience has focused. Access has been sold as an easy to
use solution, this leading to users wanting to develop their own solution.

In fact, Access is easy to use once you have a decent analysis schema,
and the documentation does not teach you how to prepare one. After that,
you have to spend time to master the syntax, but that, you know, and
this is just a question of time.

So, either you learn an analysis method, or you ask a developer to
prepare your database. This is why IS can sometimes be reluctant to
according too many rights to developing tools to users, as IS does not
have time to redevelop an application that was first developed with a
fixed number of persons in a centre, for instance.