[rco8786]

Imagine how many errors occurred before we had digital spreadsheet technology.

That said, I’ve always thought there was a product that sits somewhere in between Excel and full blown custom software that provides some of the controls we need while still being and build able by someone with low/average technical skills

[netsharc]

FileMaker seems to cover this (admittedly my interactions with it was in high school, which was last millennium), it's a database app but there's a lot of "make your own UI" parts in it, so you can create custom UIs (and wizards) for your use cases.

I suppose MS Access offers this too, although FM feels more user-friendly, MS Access felt like Internet Explorer 4, where an error dialog would pop-up for every little JavaScript error (disclaimer: this opinion is from 25 years ago).

[rco8786]

No you're right on the money in my opinion. I have very fond memories of spinning up apps in MS Access that were quick and dirty but extremely powerful, and able to be maintained/modified by folks that were not professionally trained software engineers. I think there's a missing area in the market for something exactly like that again.

[rrr_oh_man]

The hive mind really hated (hates?) MS Access and I don't know why.

I built a mini ERP for my father's company when I was 16. Started out as an excel spreadsheet, but then added inventory, accounting, and printing contracts and reports.

He kept using it until retirement and was very happy with it. I could learn & apply SQL. Win-win.

[TMWNN]

I've done that over the last several years, building an order-tracking/accounting system for myself in Excel. (Inventory and fulfillment is handled by commercial software.) I'm mulling over whether to move to a "real" database.

I'm on a Mac so can't move to Access. I've thought about FileMaker, but am considering Panorama X because unlike FileMaker it reportedly allows undoing almost anything, while FileMaker is like the typical database in a record commit not being undoable.

(Yes, I know that not allowing such is good practice, which is why I am not a database admin.)

I've heard good things about Panorama X, and it has a spreadsheet-like UI. However, I've used Excel enough to know that I haven't tapped more than a small fraction of its ability, especially things like Power Query. As much as I loathe VBA, what if the cost of moving to a "real" database isn't the up-front cost or conversion time, but the longer-term inflexibility of Panorama (and, pretty much, anything else in my price range) compared to the beast that is Excel?

[rrr_oh_man]

These days I default to Google Sheets for almost anything.

App Script is quite powerful and easier to write and understand than VBA imho.

[laxmin]

Filemaker is great. We created a monster at our University to keep track of Research Grants and it worked for almost 20 years flawlessly.

Untill, a consultant replaced it with an 'enterprise' solution that cost 10000x more to run and maintain.

Sometimes, well designed systems, however simple they might be, would be all that is required.

[masfuerte]

I've not used it, but I thought Airtable occupied this spot. It seems to have a few open-source clones if you want to run it locally. I don't know if they are any good.

[tomatocracy]

Microsoft also has Power BI which occupies this "database which looks like a spreadsheet" space. But it's not well known.