MS Access Programming

Our Microsoft Access Consulting team is composed of experienced experts who offer their talents to anyone who needs an MS Access programmer who puts the client’s interest first. Microsoft Access Consulting has been a specialty of ours since this programming tool was introduced more than 20 years ago.

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Consulting and Custom Development by Cambria Access Experts

Microsoft Access Programming by Cambria Access Experts

The key message of this page is that we write MS Access Programs for our clients and friends. If that is something you need and you trust our 28 years of experience (21 of them writing in Access) then we invite you to press the Contact Us link and let us hear what you need. Nancy can provide service from the USA or you can outsource the work to our Access Programmers in our Manila office in the Philippines.

Spreadsheets often precede the use of Microsoft Access

New underfunded companies do things for themselves. They do not get far before the need arises to store data on their operations and get to it later. Client names, phone numbers, sales history and so on. Cell phones are not bad for storing names, phone numbers and notes. A next step is to use spreadsheets to store operations data. They are easy for any novice to learn and excellent at manipulating the data.

But you do not need us to explain the limitations of spreadsheets when they grow large. You probably know them. If not, a check on Google will be enough to find out. Accidental copy-paste, the wrong sign on a number, the lack of error checking of data soon make a spreadsheet unreliable for any serious record keeping in complex operations where one type of data is related to another.

Database Management with Access

Access programmer and expert consultant Romeo Acidera The next step is a database management system (DBMS) of which Microsoft Access is one. This gives the older but wiser spreadsheet user the ability to store, extract, and update any kind of data, and tools such as a query builder to help zero in on the data you need. These systems also give the user the ability to create simple reports such as comparing sales of a class of items over time. And they are easy to learn and use. Big-time DBMS systems such as Oracle, SQL Server and others can easily handle all the data any company could ever hope to generate.

The DBMS we are concerned with here is Microsoft Access. It is relatively inexpensive and easy to install on a laptop or desktop computer. On a local area network, the data can be accessed by anyone in the office. It is a natural for users of the most popular spreadsheet, Excel, and there exist wizards that will easily import spreadsheet data into Access. MS Access is, in a way, the end result of a series of experiments in the 1970s and 1980s to develop database systems that could be used by non programmers. One of the best was FoxPro and when it they purchased Fox in 1992 Microsoft quickly made use of its Rushmore optimization techniques to give Access a significant speed advantage over the earlier low end database systems.

The bottom line is that Microsoft Access is easy for a non-programmer to install and use and can form the basis for any developing company to store and use it operations data. See this link for more on the advantages of MS Access Programming.

Database Programming in Access

Alas, sooner or later, the non ms access programmer will run into the need to add programming to the system. This can arise, for example, from creating special routines to protect the integrity of the data that is entered into the system. It can arise from the need to keep some data more secure than other data. At this point the non-programmers can choose an Access Consulting Company like Cambria to help them with this chore or learn to do it themselves.

Doing it yourself is not so daunting, really. But it does take time. Any logical mind can understand data tables, and the programming language that Microsoft Access has chosen as its native language is a variant of Basic which has been proven over the years to be relatively easy to learn. It is also at the heart of other Microsoft products such as Visual Basic and .Net. Still, many serious people will view it as a misuse of their time to learn programming when they can hire the service of an expert MS Access Developer such as our company can provide. If that happens to you we hope you will consider Cambria.

Limitations of and Prejudices about Microsoft Access

Access Programming is not all work. Access experts in Philippine Formal Dress We programmers are, of necessity, specialists to help other run the show rather than run it ourselves. As compensation to our ego we sometimes develop strong prejudices toward programming languages and database systems. This often leads a developer do denigrate a system so easy to use as an Access Database and to scorn a language so easy to learn as Basic.

To a few the only language choice is something like C/C++ which is so difficult to use that it has the only journal whose leading pages feature a monthly programming excerpt and challenge readers to understand it! And because an Access Database breaks down if there are too many users and too much data they may sneer at Access as a toy system. It is as if ease of use is a defect in a product!

Don’t believe any of this. Microsoft Access is a fully professional system that, within its limitations, is good enough for any purpose. It’s main limitation has to do with losing steam if the database gets too big but this is easily overcome by using Microsoft wizards that will transform the database from an Access MDB to Microsoft SQL Server, a database powerful enough to handle the needs of any business. And the work already done by the MS Access Consultant will continue to function with only minor changes. Naturally, the Ms Access Consultants at Cambria can help with this task when and if needed.

Microsoft Access Programming Services at Cambria

Cambria ms access programmers have been writing applications for our clients since 1984 and has made it one of our specialties since it was introduced. Our programmers have developed hundreds of applications — from simple mailing lists and other programs using the built in Access database for complex data analysis and accounting systems where the Access Basic language is used but where SQL Server replaces the Access database.

Our MS Access Programmers in Person

Microsoft Access Consultant Nancy Crewdson on Table during Morale Building Games in the Philippines Nancy Crewdson, who can program access in her sleep, is Cambria's head Microsoft Access Consultant. She has 29 years as a microsoft access developer and access has been her programming tool of choice since 1994. Romeo Acidera is our head microsoft access developer in Cambria’s Philippine office and, with 6 years at Cambria, is a veteran ms access developer in his own right. They are supported by full time access consultant Chelle Corpuz and others who work with access as part of their other programming duties.

Microsoft Access Consultants

Access is the right programming tool for many applications, but oftentimes, the non-programmer hits a "brick wall" in taking a concept past the wizards to actual implementation. At this time you need the phone number of an experienced Access Consultant in your database. Consulting to those clients who wish to do some programming themselves is not uncommon for us. "Why does this query not work?" "How do I structure this report?" "How can I make my interface more intuitive to the user?" "How can I speed this up?" or even "How do I migrate Access macros to Visual Basic code?" are questions we frequently consult upon. Other times, we are given a broken or incomplete Access database and are asked to fix it or to add new modules or new reports.

More fundamentally, Consulting in general means suspending your own prejudices’ and looking at a problem from the client’s point of view on what he wants to accomplish. If you look at other pages on this site you will find that many of our programmers are expert in other areas of programming. But we are not expert at everything and if your project calls for something different from what we offer we will not slant our advice toward our own specialties. Our staff are Microsoft Access Consultants first and programmers second. If Access is not the right tool our consultants will say so.

Sample Programming Projects

  • "RedProTrac" is a Real Estate Development Project tracking system created for the TynanGroup, a nationwide development firm. It tracks large scale construction projects from inception including budget, contracts, change orders, purchasing and owners draw. It took many months of programming time and close interaction with the client to make this accounting and project management tool come alive. Microsoft Access Programming was chosen to minimize cost and maximize the lead time for getting the program running.

  • For Pacific Media Associates, a market research company with offices in New York, Tokyo and the San Jose Area, we developed an analytical and forecasting tool with the front end in Access, and the back end in SQL Server. Most of the reports involve weighted computations exported into formatted Excel spreadsheets. This has been a major project for our microsoft access consultants and has evolved over many years.

  • For the Sequoia Center, a Silicon Valley alcohol and drug rehabilitation treatment center, our ms access programmer Access to create a patient billing and treatment tracking system. We strive for a paperless office respecting patient privacy and case worker efficiency. After intake, the Access database system tracks in-patient and out-patient services with specialized billing to insurance companies via UB92, using the insurance company's own terminology and authorized codes. It also handles private pay and accounts receivable accounting functions.

And Everything in Between

The programs described above were large projects. a Cambria ms access developer is also no stranger to small ones. Typical is one for Norquist Salvage Company. This company manages donation drives for charities - the folks who call you up asking if you have any household items or clothing to leave on your curb on a designated day for pickup. The Access database maintains household address, phone numbers, call center postings, reminder post cards, and driver route sheets and payments and previous donations where households could leave their unwanted household goods.

Access Development Alternatives

No tool is for every job, of course, and Access is no exception. There is a point where an Access database is too large for efficient performance and this is the point to consider an upgrade to a database like Microsoft SQL Server. We can help, if needed, to convert the access database to sql. These days it is not uncommon that clients wish to take the functionality in their current access program and put it on the web. A Cambria microsoft access programmer can help with this kind of issue as well. Of course you do not have to use Access at all. Other pages on this site describe our services for other kinds of programming options.

Opportunities at Cambria for an MS Access Programmer

If you are a Microsoft Access Programmer with several years experience and are looking for another opportunity then please check the "careers" section of this website to see if we are currently hiring MS Access Programmers. Access is a popular product and a day has rarely gone by in the last 20 years that we did not have at least several Access projects in progress to keep busy and we usually have room for more help.

  • "Romeo you are so AWESOME!!!! This is going to be great when you are done…

    Thank you, I’m certain Jeff can work with what you have working thus far!"

    Shelia McBride,
    Gradecheck, Detroit, MI

  • "Thank you Nancy! The upgraded database will only enhance our abilities to do more!"

  • Karen Zinn, Razak Company, Philadelphia, PA

  • "A person usually doesn't hear when they did something right, only when something was done wrong, so "Wow Nancy, we have a great program!!"

    It was an amazing feeling to see the interest in another insurance agents face when we showed him meimo this morning. We should be able to eliminate STACKS of paper from this agency.

    Meimo would not be near the quality that it is if we had different programmers. Thank you again for a great program!!"

    Joe Frain, Frain Insurance Agency, Chesterton, IN

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