Database Project: Using MS Access

Before working on this project, I had never used Microsoft Access. I have heard so many great things about it in the past, but never actually used it. After watching the Access videos, practicing activities, and completing this project, I now see why so many businesses and people give it such great reviews!

One of the most important features I learned about Access was creating reports. I find this feature to be very helpful when presenting co-workers with data at meetings. Thanks to reports Access creates, data can easily be analyzed when grouping and sorting out data. When working on the project, I was able to quickly look at all the customers in a specific city, and see the most recently departed first. Another really important element that I learned to use was queries. Queries can be extremely helpful when you want to limit the amount of data in a table (like we did in the project). Moreover, queries allow the user to do so many different things including create, retrieve, update, and delete large amounts of records.  I found it very useful using queries to filter data through different fields. In turn, using queries are very advantageous when wanting to create a report with limited data later on.  

Overall, I learned so many other features—especially since I had never used the program—but it would take many more paragraphs to talk about them all. Most importantly, I learned how great the program is, its features, and how I would apply them in the business world and my future career.

I believe that adding payment information in the “New Members Form” can be useful when members fill out their forms. A text box can be integrated that will tell the gym owner what type of fitness plan they would like to sign up for. The form will copy this information and update it on the “members” table. Another way to enhance the functionality of the database is to add a field that shows the next payment due dates for each member. This can be useful to owners when sending reminders to their members, and can be useful when creating reports for finance meetings.