> Hello,
>  I have a very strange way of producing reports, so I would like to give
the
> disclaimer that I was forced into this and I am now trying to figure an
easy
> way out.

> As an overview, this is what I do:
> A table of the employee's compensation is kept in Access. I run Group
> queries to sum the data by groups (of which there are many).

> Through automation the queries populate specific cells in an Excel sheet
(if
> the sheet does not exist, it is created with all the appropriate blanks
and
> calculations). The Excel sheet may sometime contain as many as 150 columns
> to deal with all the different type of calculations (none of which are
> terribly complicated).

> The "calculation" spreadsheets feed a formatted sheet to make it look
> pretty. Occasionally one calculation sheet can feed as many as 10
formatted
> sheets. I would like to note that I am not talking about pivot tables or
> your basic row and column formatting. These formatted sheets contain 9
boxes
> (picture the Brady Bunch) and have as many as 6 numbers in each box. The
> formatted sheets are then linked to a PowerPoint presentation for
Leadership
> to review.

> Each presentation can have as many of 50 pages. Once they are linked, I
run
> a macro to preserve the original linked presentation, but create another
> presentation with the Excel sheets embedded into PowerPoint so it can be
> sent to upper-management.

> I know this all seems ridiculous, and it is. I am also leaving out a great
> deal of the business rules that drive who goes with what group and when as
> well as all the crazy divisions of data. The other major thing about these
> reports is that they need to be extremely flexible. That is because at a
> moment's notice Leadership requests something slightly different and I
need
> to produce it, quickly.

> I am wondering is there a faster way to populate the Excel sheets or
> PowerPoint, or any general suggestions to improve this process (short of
new
> leadership).

> Thanks so much.

> -Rob

> p.s.

> Once again, I fully acknowledge the absolute absurdity of this. But to
give
> you some perspective, what used to happen was an ugly report was printed
> from Access. People would then copy the information down (pen and paper)
> onto a blank Brady Bunch boxed sheet. That would then be manually entered
in
> PowerPoint. If a single employee's compensation changed,  the entire
process
> would begin again. I managed to get a process that involved 5 people and 6
> hours down to two people and one hour - too bad there were no bonuses this
> year. Rrrr!

> It sounds like you have a pretty good system going.  Although, it can
> probably use some fine tuning, that would require hours of work after you
> give out your database, workbook and presentation.  Not a good idea unless
> you hire a professional.  If you have questions about any specific area of
> the operation, submit a question on it including the code for what you are
> doing now or descriptions of the manual operations that you are doing
> instead of using code.  Someone will probably be able to help you if you
> have more specific requests.

> Kim

> > Hello,
> >  I have a very strange way of producing reports, so I would like to give
> the
> > disclaimer that I was forced into this and I am now trying to figure an
> easy
> > way out.

> > As an overview, this is what I do:
> > A table of the employee's compensation is kept in Access. I run Group
> > queries to sum the data by groups (of which there are many).

> > Through automation the queries populate specific cells in an Excel sheet
> (if
> > the sheet does not exist, it is created with all the appropriate blanks
> and
> > calculations). The Excel sheet may sometime contain as many as 150
columns
> > to deal with all the different type of calculations (none of which are
> > terribly complicated).

> > The "calculation" spreadsheets feed a formatted sheet to make it look
> > pretty. Occasionally one calculation sheet can feed as many as 10
> formatted
> > sheets. I would like to note that I am not talking about pivot tables or
> > your basic row and column formatting. These formatted sheets contain 9
> boxes
> > (picture the Brady Bunch) and have as many as 6 numbers in each box. The
> > formatted sheets are then linked to a PowerPoint presentation for
> Leadership
> > to review.

> > Each presentation can have as many of 50 pages. Once they are linked, I
> run
> > a macro to preserve the original linked presentation, but create another
> > presentation with the Excel sheets embedded into PowerPoint so it can be
> > sent to upper-management.

> > I know this all seems ridiculous, and it is. I am also leaving out a
great
> > deal of the business rules that drive who goes with what group and when
as
> > well as all the crazy divisions of data. The other major thing about
these
> > reports is that they need to be extremely flexible. That is because at a
> > moment's notice Leadership requests something slightly different and I
> need
> > to produce it, quickly.

> > I am wondering is there a faster way to populate the Excel sheets or
> > PowerPoint, or any general suggestions to improve this process (short of
> new
> > leadership).

> > Thanks so much.

> > -Rob

> > p.s.

> > Once again, I fully acknowledge the absolute absurdity of this. But to
> give
> > you some perspective, what used to happen was an ugly report was printed
> > from Access. People would then copy the information down (pen and paper)
> > onto a blank Brady Bunch boxed sheet. That would then be manually
entered
> in
> > PowerPoint. If a single employee's compensation changed,  the entire
> process
> > would begin again. I managed to get a process that involved 5 people and
6
> > hours down to two people and one hour - too bad there were no bonuses
this
> > year. Rrrr!

> Your process seems very complicated but here are a couple
> of ideas that might help you.  I do know that writing to
> Excel cell by cell is time consuming.  What you might try
> to do is create a cross-tab query in Access instead of
> using a regular select.  Another thing you could do if
> you create the cross-tab query is create a Microsoft
> Query in Excel and retrieve the cross-tab data into your
> worksheet.  Without knowing all the details of your
> process these are only guesses but I thought I'd let you
> know.

> Tom,

> I really like the idea of retreiving the query, but when I do,  I get
errors
> saying their is an "Undefined Function XXXX." These functions are ones
that
> I use in the queries. Of course they run in Access without a problem, but
> when I linked it, it was considered "undefined."

> Is there a way around this? I am thinking that your idea (once it is set
up)
> may save me lots of time.

> Thanks.

> -Rob

> > Your process seems very complicated but here are a couple
> > of ideas that might help you.  I do know that writing to
> > Excel cell by cell is time consuming.  What you might try
> > to do is create a cross-tab query in Access instead of
> > using a regular select.  Another thing you could do if
> > you create the cross-tab query is create a Microsoft
> > Query in Excel and retrieve the cross-tab data into your
> > worksheet.  Without knowing all the details of your
> > process these are only guesses but I thought I'd let you
> > know.