I'm working with several Excel worksheets and workbooks that need to consolidated or linked to each other. These workbooks will track client interactions for different team members.

I did the initial consolidation in Microsoft Excel, but realized that going forward, there's a risk of people overwriting each other or working from an older version of the master workbook.

After some research, I realized one idea could be to have each person track their own client interactions. I can regularly consolidate each workbook into the master using Excel data models.

But are there additional risk to doing this? Is an Excel data model as good as an Access database? I've shied away from Access because my team is not comfortable using SQL and overall dislike the Access Interface.

This is why I started off using Excel. But managing multiple workbooks (with changing names) has already created several version control issues. Any feedback would be helpful!

EDIT: I'm limited to using Microsoft Office 365. EDIT: Add use cases below

Use Cases

Log interactions

• Each person can keep a log of daily client interactions
• Individual logs are regularly synced to a master list that shows interactions for the whole team

Log contact information

• Each person can contact information for new clients
• New contact info is synced with the master list

Add or update broad company information

• Each person can add or update general company information (ex Company A is focused on xyz for 2020). This is separate from the individual interactions
• Updates to general company information can be added directly or synced with a master list

Filter for a list of interactions, contacts and broad information

• Search interactions based on criteria (ex company's city, interaction date, contact's place of employment)
• Print all information (interactions, contacts and broad information) based on a specific company name

Reporting

• Send scheduled reports (weekly, quarterly) based on recent updates and other specified criteria (ex company with the most logged interactions for the month)

I'm working with several Excel worksheets and workbooks that need to consolidated or linked to each other. These workbooks will track client interactions for different team members.

I did the initial consolidation in Microsoft Excel, but realized that going forward, there's a risk of people overwriting each other or working from an older version of the master workbook.

After some research, I realized one idea could be to have each person track their own client interactions. I can regularly consolidate each workbook into the master using Excel data models.

But are there additional risk to doing this? Is an Excel data model as good as an Access database? I've shied away from Access because my team is not comfortable using SQL and overall dislike the Access Interface.

This is why I started off using Excel. But managing multiple workbooks (with changing names) has already created several version control issues. Any feedback would be helpful!

I'm limited to using Microsoft Office 365.

Use Cases

Log interactions

• Each person can keep a log of daily client interactions
• Individual logs are regularly synced to a master list that shows interactions for the whole team

Log contact information

• Each person can contact information for new clients
• New contact info is synced with the master list

Add or update broad company information

• Each person can add or update general company information (ex Company A is focused on xyz for 2020). This is separate from the individual interactions
• Updates to general company information can be added directly or synced with a master list

Filter for a list of interactions, contacts and broad information

• Search interactions based on criteria (ex company's city, interaction date, contact's place of employment)
• Print all information (interactions, contacts and broad information) based on a specific company name

Reporting

• Send scheduled reports (weekly, quarterly) based on recent updates and other specified criteria (ex company with the most logged interactions for the month)

I'm working with several Excel worksheets and workbooks that need to consolidated or linked to each other. These workbooks will track client interactions for different team members.

I did the initial consolidation in Microsoft Excel, but realized that going forward, there's a risk of people overwriting each other or working from an older version of the master workbook.

After some research, I realized one idea could be to have each person track their own client interactions. I can regularly consolidate each workbook into the master using Excel data models.

But are there additional risk to doing this? Is an Excel data model as good as an Access database? I've shied away from Access because my team is not comfortable using SQL and overall dislike the Access Interface.

This is why I started off using Excel. But managing multiple workbooks (with changing names) has already created several version control issues. Any feedback would be helpful!

EDIT: I'm limited to using Microsoft Office 365.

I'm working with several Excel worksheets and workbooks that need to consolidated or linked to each other. These workbooks will track client interactions for different team members.

I did the initial consolidation in Microsoft Excel, but realized that going forward, there's a risk of people overwriting each other or working from an older version of the master workbook.

After some research, I realized one idea could be to have each person track their own client interactions. I can regularly consolidate each workbook into the master using Excel data models.

But are there additional risk to doing this? Is an Excel data model as good as an Access database? I've shied away from Access because my team is not comfortable using SQL and overall dislike the Access Interface.

This is why I started off using Excel. But managing multiple workbooks (with changing names) has already created several version control issues. Any feedback would be helpful!

EDIT: I'm limited to using Microsoft Office 365. EDIT: Add use cases below

Use Cases

Log interactions

• Each person can keep a log of daily client interactions
• Individual logs are regularly synced to a master list that shows interactions for the whole team

Log contact information

• Each person can contact information for new clients
• New contact info is synced with the master list

Add or update broad company information

• Each person can add or update general company information (ex Company A is focused on xyz for 2020). This is separate from the individual interactions
• Updates to general company information can be added directly or synced with a master list

Filter for a list of interactions, contacts and broad information

• Search interactions based on criteria (ex company's city, interaction date, contact's place of employment)
• Print all information (interactions, contacts and broad information) based on a specific company name

Reporting

• Send scheduled reports (weekly, quarterly) based on recent updates and other specified criteria (ex company with the most logged interactions for the month)