I just started working for a company that has several Access databases - A total of 7 gigabytes of Access files that are linked to raw data files. The raw data files come from different departments and must be run through Access queries to format them correctly. There are also links between the Access databases, and it gets very confusing.

My boss wants me to improve the system and include on-line reporting for about 50 internal people. He would like for the reports to be interactive with dropdowns and radio buttons. I am an expert VBA programmer for Excel, and could build this type of report without a problem, but have no clue how to get this on a website. I am willing to learn a new reporting software, if it would work better on-line and more seamlessly with a database. Perhaps Access Data Pages or SQL Reporting might be better.

What backend database do you recommend, and what do you recommend for the on-line reporting?

Thanks,
Pahla

start with Access

this way, you can focus your attention to getting the reports online, and not on the technical issues surrounding converting the database from Access to something else

then, once it's up and running, you can think about upsizing from Access to SQL Server

(note "SQL" is a language, "SQL Server" is a database system)