Well, if it's all we got "access" to....
...I'm one of those who had to use Excel as a flat-file database because the organisation I work for sees no reason for staff to use Access. And had to do some fairly hefty coding to do searches and create lists because my chosen 'tool' didn't support SQL. Fortunately, I'm getting ready to port my app to a stand-alone using Gambas in GNULinux and convert the data to SQLite3, so whilst I might have to re-do all my code, at least it will be a bit easier (read: "less kludgy") to maintain.