Microsfot Access or Excel (Or Open Office) for Dojo Admin

[fleasome]

Greetings,

We had in the old days always used various bookkeeping books, just cause they were cheap and had lines, to take role. We basically kept attendance, start date, when association dues were due, payments, etc.

A few months ago I decided to do this a little different and decided to open up Microsoft Excel which I'm pretty familiar with. I'm not keeping track of the following;

Attendance and Excuses for not

Percentage of Classes Attended

Payments

Address, Phone, Email, other Contact

Right or Left Handed

Rank/Progression of Student

Dojo Finances

Phone Calls/Emails from Prospective Students

Trends

At any rate, Excel is a wonderful tool however I'm starting to think that Microsoft Access would be a little better. I have just taken a weeks worth of Access classes and was going to do some work on creating Access. I really have no previous experience with that software.

As I run a small basement dojo, I'm not interested in paying $500.00 or something for some of the Dojo Admin software out there. I already have Microsoft Office Suite and just can't justify the expense. I'd rather spend the money on mats or other equipment or maybe a new giant screen TV for the man cave.

My questions to you all are;

Who else uses Access, Word, OpenOffice, or Comparable Products?

What do you track?

Thanks

[tke010]

I started with excel and converted to access.

additional columns that i track ( the ones i can think of right now)

-full name of student\parents

-students\parents address

-emergency phone number (name of contact)

-if the student has signed the school waiver.

-birthday

-age

-dates of belt promotion.

[Rateh]

I used to have a running chart on excel of student rank promotions. On the left I had the students names, on the top was months/years. When a student advanced I marked the appropriate box (like Y for Yellow Belt, or BII for 2nd Blue Belt). I found it to be very helpful as we did not have set promotion times (tests were held every month for whoever was ready). I've found that time goes by much faster for instructors than students sometimes. As an instructor it may feel like someone just got their yellow belt a month or two ago, but when I checked the chart I would see that it had been longer ago than I thought.

[tenshinka]

http://www.kicksite.net/

Free with up to 20 students...Then it goes to a monthly fee.