By Hiran de Silva
It was Wednesday morning, and I’d spent most of Tuesday on a LinkedIn thread — the one which said, essentially, that Power Query replaces Access as a database.
Of course, I jumped on it. Power Query is not a database. And the whole point of Access — especially for Excel users — is being completely missed.
This, of course, goes right to the heart of my campaign to educate. My message has always been simple: for Excel users, Microsoft Access is incredibly important. Not a sideshow, not competing, not obsolete, not redundant — but crucial. And my history of commenting on social media whenever this subject comes up goes back years. For austerity’s sake, let me share some of that history.
The “Fall Off the Chair” Moment
Years ago, there was a very popular LinkedIn thread. In those days, LinkedIn posts even had titles. This one was:
“What was your most fall off the chair moment with Excel?”
I didn’t even read the other comments — I just dove in with mine. My moment was when I first used Excel with Access, in a real client situation, back in 1997. That was the moment that changed everything for me.
When I posted my detailed story, someone shot back:
“So you mean the answer to Excel’s problems is Access? Hahaha.”
And I realised something important. That was the common mantra in the late ’90s and early 2000s: If Excel creaks, you need to abandon it and move to Access.
But here’s the thing: that mantra always ended in tears.
Why? Because people misunderstood what Access was for. They thought “move to Access” meant abandoning Excel altogether, re-building the whole thing in Access. And yes, Access has that multi-user appeal — a department can share data instead of a single user working alone. That was attractive, and I did several successful projects that way, even competing head-to-head with ERP systems.
But where Access truly shone — and still shines — is prototyping.
In fact, Access prototyping earned me the equivalent of nearly half a million pounds — around £400–450k today — back in 2002. On one solution alone. That’s the scale of its importance. And in 2008, £540k in today’s money on three connected solutions that had only one sheet each, and no data stored in it. Thanks to Access prototyping. This story was mentioned in WIRED magazine.
Excel and Access: Not Enemies, but Best Friends
So my problem with this LinkedIn post is this: Excel and Access are framed as enemies, in conflict, as though you have to pick one over the other. His claim is that you can now “dump Access” because “Excel can do everything Access does.”
This completely misses the point. From the very beginning, Excel and Access were designed to be best friends. They still are. Their synergic combination is unassailable in the real world of business, where messy challenges demand clever flexible solutions.
In those situations, Excel often needs to call upon Access to get the job done. That’s the relationship. That’s the synergy. And it seamless. The role of Access is essentially invisible.
Another well-known influencer, November 2023
This isn’t the first time I’ve seen the same misunderstanding. Around November 2023, I saw this post:
“There’s nothing you can do with Access that you can’t do better with Excel.”
Once again, that’s the same error — putting Excel and Access in conflict.
I pressed him on it, but the conversation went nowhere. Our friend reached for irrelevancies — including the fact that he had an Access certification ten years ago. My point was different: Excel and Access are not rivals. They’re partners.
The Missing Conversation
The reality is this: on social media, nobody talks about Access. Many people don’t even know it still exists. I once mentioned Access at a meeting and someone replied, “Does it still exist?”
And when I ran polls, many respondents actually said ‘it has been discontinued’, and some even said it should be discontinued. That’s shocking, because Access is still one of the most pivotal, invisible enablers of Excel at scale.
Not only does it still exist — it is the hidden superpower that prevents “Excel Hell.” – and as noted above, leads to massive opportunities for Excel users.
The Popular Social Media Claim
So let’s cut to the chase. The claim is that you no longer need Access because ‘Power Query is a database’.
That’s a shocking statement. Because Power Query is not a database. It’s an ETL tool (Extract, Transform, Load).
Claiming Power Query replaces Access because both use words like “tables” and “joins” is like saying:
A wheelbarrow has wheels. A racing car has wheels. Therefore, a wheelbarrow is a racing car.
That’s the level of absurdity we’re dealing with.
Into the Swamp
And this is where the real damage is done. Because if you start treating Power Query as a database, you’ll end up in the swamp.
Let me explain.
There are over 50,000 tutorials and perhaps 10,000 YouTube videos showing how to consolidate budgets with Power Query. The standard pitch is always the same: external links are fragile, risky, and unstable — but Power Query removes them.
So far so good. But now you’ve introduced two deal-breakers:
- You’ve converted a live process into a batch process.
Budgets become static snapshots run by an administrator. Managers can’t collaborate in real time, and meetings grind to a halt because the result of decisions can’t be seen until the next update is distributed. - You’re sending pivot tables to managers.
Top management don’t want to navigate pivot tables. They want formatted reports, like they always had,
The result? Management is livid. Something that worked, albeit with risks, has now been broken beyond repair.
And here’s the kicker: when I asked LinkedIn experts how to solve those problems — how to restore real-time collaboration and proper reports — nobody responded. Not one.
That’s the swamp. You’ve guided your organisation straight into it.
The Solution: GET and PUT
Here’s the alternative. Here’s the sunshine outside the swamp.
- Each budget template has a PUT button. When completed, the budget lines are uploaded into an Access database sitting quietly on a shared drive.
- Each template also has a GET button. Select a region, country, or group in the dropdowns, click GET, and the template instantly retrieves the consolidated numbers — in proper, formatted reports.
- Audit trail? Simple. Click on any number and the contributing detail from individual shops is retrieved instantly.
And here’s the beauty: nobody ever opens Access. Nobody needs to know it’s even there. Excel does all the talking.
This is the hidden treasure inside Excel: built-in capability to upload (PUT) and download (GET) data with Access, seamlessly. Most people don’t even know it exists.
Avoiding the Swamp Altogether
So let’s frame it in Theodore Levitt’s terms:
The customer doesn’t want a quarter-inch drill. The customer wants a quarter-inch hole.
Power Query drills holes — but in the wrong place. Access, working with Excel, delivers the hole exactly where the customer wants it.
And once you know how to use it, you don’t just escape the swamp. You never enter it in the first place.
Final Thought
So when social media says “Excel or Access,” it’s guiding people into the swamp. When I say “Excel and Access,” I’m showing you the way out — and the way to glory, and recognition, and reward from those whose pain has been removed permanently, and spectacularly. Management.
That’s the choice. Swamp, or sunshine. Failure, or delivering exactly what management wants. The hole where it is needed.
Excel and Access: best friends for over 30 years, and still the unbeatable combination.
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