Turning Excel Data into Relational Database

Challenge: A printing company kept vendor quotes in Excel worksheets. Their purchasing agents could view current quotes and select the ‘best fit vendor/lowest quote', but there was no ongoing tracking of purchases by agent or by job, and no bridge to the purchase order generation.

Solution: DataBasics provided an Access database to complete the purchasing information cycle.

The database imports the existing Excel worksheet and provides a similar user interface to view the quotes.

The database also provides reporting by job, purchasing agent and vendor.

Management now has accurate and timely information to manage vendor relationships, including current YTD total purchases to leverage mid-year discounts.

The purchasing agent reports now include information on ‘vendor selected' as well as ‘vendor with lower quotes' to ensure purchasing agents are using best business practices when awarding jobs.