Excel type program for multiple users?

the_syco

Hey all,

So, have multiple users using Excel, but as Excel can only really support one user at a time, conflicts often occur. Can't put them on MS Access, as they need the calculations in Excel. Would prefer an out of the box software solution, as find custom software is great until the person who supports it leaves.

So, basically would be looking for a database program that can handle calculations. Would be used by several small teams, some of whom would be working off-site.

Any ideas?

Anima

Google Docs supports mutiple users no?

G_R

You could use excel online on a sharepoint site? I think it may limit some of the more complicated functions and formulas though.

A well designed form on MS Access, with proper queries behind it can do wonders though. I'd be surprised if you couldn't do what you needed to do on access if you can do it on excel.

Vex Willems

Google Sheets
https://www.google.com/sheets/about/

Neon_Lights

Office 365 also supports multiple users.

However studies have shown up 90% of organisations spreadsheets contain errors mainly down to users. Adding more to the mix may help them collaborate but does less for data quality.

mrDerek

Google sheets is the best you can see real time changes other users are making

the_syco

Neon_Lights wrote: »

Office 365 also supports multiple users.

However studies have shown up 90% of organisations spreadsheets contain errors mainly down to users. Adding more to the mix may help them collaborate but does less for data quality.

Using Office 2010. In theory it's meant to support multiple users using the shared workbook feature, but in practise, it doesn't. Heck, sometimes if only one person is accessing it, Excel thinks there are multiple people accessing it

Anima wrote: »

Google Docs supports mutiple users no?

Any idea how easy is it to ensure people can only access this from within the company IP range?

G_R wrote: »

You could use excel online on a sharepoint site? I think it may limit some of the more complicated functions and formulas though.

A well designed form on MS Access, with proper queries behind it can do wonders though. I'd be surprised if you couldn't do what you needed to do on access if you can do it on excel.

Shall look into the "Excel online on a sharepoint site".

One of the main groups that use Excel, have the Excel sheet produced from an intranet source. Shall see if they can produce the Access file.

I fear many are "afraid" of MS Access (word given to me from my Team Lead), but if it resolves most of their issues, they may move to it.

Are Am Eye

You could do a simple enough vb forms hitting off the one spreadsheet

Neon_Lights

It may be over engineering but Oracle Apex works a treat, not too much maintenance either. Excel as a multiuser database is a horrible design.

I like the access and Google sheets suggestions, and you can hook in Google sheets into Google forms for the simplest input output db

G_R

the_syco wrote: »

Using Office 2010. In theory it's meant to support multiple users using the shared workbook feature, but in practise, it doesn't. Heck, sometimes if only one person is accessing it, Excel thinks there are multiple people accessing it


Any idea how easy is it to ensure people can only access this from within the company IP range?


Shall look into the "Excel online on a sharepoint site".

One of the main groups that use Excel, have the Excel sheet produced from an intranet source. Shall see if they can produce the Access file.

I fear many are "afraid" of MS Access (word given to me from my Team Lead), but if it resolves most of their issues, they may move to it.

If it's well designed, they don't even need to know they're using access, it's just another "system".

An excel sheet can be used as an access linked table too, to pull data from (can't edit though)

Re google sheets, you can't restrict login by IP but you can by user account. You can also restrict who can edit what. Doesn't need to be a gmail account either. It will allow log in from anywhere though.

SilverSideUp

the_syco wrote: »

Hey all,

So, have multiple users using Excel, but as Excel can only really support one user at a time, conflicts often occur. Can't put them on MS Access, as they need the calculations in Excel. Would prefer an out of the box software solution, as find custom software is great until the person who supports it leaves.

So, basically would be looking for a database program that can handle calculations. Would be used by several small teams, some of whom would be working off-site.

Any ideas?

Can you give us more information on the type of thing you are doing in Excel? I was using Excel several years ago for shared work. I moved to MySQL and haven't looked back since. The great thing about a proper database (Excel is not a proper database) is that it is designed to handle concurrent users. You would need a web interface on your browser obviously. To advise you more I would need to know about how you are using the spreadsheet.

s7ryf3925pivug

Smartsheets seems good. Think it's intended mainly for project management; don't know if that fits what you're doing or how well it works as a general tool. Has strong collaborative features anyway.