Paperless Database Solutions

With the current situation that we are all facing with the pandemic and the constant evolving technology over the last 20 years, it makes sense more than ever to take the steps towards a paperless database. It may sound daunting at first, especially if you have a lot of previous data stored but once you are setup then the time and effort saved will be worth the initial investment.

The first solution for going paperless is the use of Microsoft Office, in the form of excel or access. Excel is for more simple data inputs; you can store your data in mainly tables which is more beneficial if you want something easier to understand. There is a lot of tools to help you out with your data and automating it including formulas, calculations, and formatting.

Access on the other hand you can create database from scratch with tables, forms, queries, and reports which can all interlink with each other. This is the more complex solution of the two but offers much more versatility in what you can do, you can even interlink excel table into access making it the more efficient of the two.

Some downsides of using either of the two software’s is that you will need a laptop or desk computer to use these software’s properly. Another downside is that the databases will be made by an individual user, this means that if you have multiple people who will want to access the database then it will need to be sent over or installed from an external device onto their device. Whilst it only requires a onetime quick download it can be troublesome for people who do not own a laptop or desktop computer.

If you are interested in access databases see some of our recent works for clients using Microsoft Access

A second paperless database solution is the use of sharepoint and powerapps. This is another Microsoft Office product but these two allow multiple people to use the same database. What this entails is using sharepoint as the software where all your data is stored, this is done through creating lists on the website where you can put your data in, it is slower to use sharepoint as you are using an online service instead of software so there will be natural delay in whatever you do. As Sharepoint is owned by Microsoft, it allows you to add apps to sharepoint which includes excel and powerapps.

Powerapps is Microsofts own app builder, this allows users to create their own app and import/export them to other users respectfully. What this allows is you to link sharepoint lists to your app for both reading and inputting data to the app. This allows users on mobile to read and input data easily. There is an inbuilt custom html code section in powerapps as well which allows you to make customisations to the app. A common one is restricting users, this makes sure that your data is not tampered with or changed by human errors.

If you are interested in sharepoint and powerapps being interlinked, see our recent works for exmamples.

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