That's exactly how I use Access at work. We host all the data on MS SQL Server that is managed by the IT department (scheduled imports, maintenance etc) and the

That's exactly how I use Access at work. We host all the data on MS SQL Server that is managed by the IT department (scheduled imports, maintenance etc) and then everyone links to the tables from Access where they create queries with the visual wizard. these can then be linked to from Excel to produce reports where a layman can just do data refresh to update. Makes for a really flexible data reporting workflow that fits the knowledge level of each user. SQL Server (Data Tables and Views) >>> Access (Queries via visual wizard) >>> Excel (Reports linked via MS Query) PS: We also use data cubes (SQL Analysis Services) but those have to be setup on the IT side, so we tend to disfavour them due to depending on a bottleneck human resource. Although with Cubes you can write Cube formulas straight from excel bypassing the Access stpe