I have just started a new job in a car hire place, and they want me to create a database for them. They basically want to be able to run a report every so often to tell them which of their cars needs a service, and which ones are overdue.

The person who will be running the reports is not very computer savvy so it needs to be easy for them to do it.

I was wondering if it would be better to do this in Microsoft Excel or Access. I have intermediate knowledge of both, I have set up and maintained a few databases in previous jobs but do not have much experience in reporting. Which is the easiest for reporting, and which would be best for determining whether the services are due or overdue?

Any advice much appreciated thanks.

Oracle Database is best for you. You can user D2k/6i/10 Forms and report for reporting and maintaining database.

Oh unfortunately I only have the choice of Microsoft Access or Excel.

if you have the experience, use Access
why?
its multi user, so the same data can be viewed on more than one device at any one time.
reporting is straightforward and simple, or can be straightforward and complex, or can horrendously complex but still dooable
you are less prone to subtle data errors that can creep in if you use a spreadsheet to store data (Im not knocking spreadsheets, they do a fantastic job at analysing data, however they can be a frightmare if you use them as the original source storing data).
modern versions of Access can run licence free using Access runtime, meaning that you may not need multiple copies of Access.
data validation and integrity is almost built in to a database, its not a strong point in a spreadsheet
you can always dump data from Access into a spreadsheet if required, its tricky to go the other way.