What a Microsoft Access Migration Costs

We don’t publish a price list for this work, and we would be wary of anyone who quotes one before seeing the file. Two databases of the same size can be very different jobs. What we can show you is how the price is built, so you can size up your own file before you call anyone.

What Access migration costs, by database size

File size is the least useful measure. A 1.5 GB file of invoices with three forms is a small job. A 40 MB file with 60 forms and VBA behind every button is a large one. Size by what the database does instead:

• Small: one department, one job. A few dozen tables, a handful of forms and reports, little or no code, and a few people using it. This is the eight to twelve week case from audit to cutover, parallel run included, and the lowest price.
• Medium: several people, several jobs. Dozens of forms and reports, saved queries feeding other queries, VBA behind the main buttons, and an export to accounting or Excel somewhere. A straightforward migration of this kind takes about three months.
• Large: a system in all but name. Several linked Access files acting as one, people in more than one location, and code nobody has read in years. This is closer to a custom software build, and a multi-module system can take a year.

Every one of them gets the same first step: a free audit of every table, query, form, report and macro, then a fixed quote in writing before anything is billed. You keep the audit whether or not you hire us.

What drives the price up: forms, reports and VBA

The data itself is cheap to move. Tables and records come across with tools and checks. The price sits in everything people click, print and run:

• Forms. Each one is a screen to rebuild, with its own lookups, defaults and validation. A form with three subforms and a dozen buttons takes far longer to rebuild than a simple entry form.
• Reports. Printed layouts with grouping and totals have to match the old ones to the penny, because someone will compare them. Invoices, pay sheets and month-end reports take the most time.
• VBA and macros. This is where the business rules hide: the discount that only applies on Fridays, the field that fills itself in. Every rule has to be found and written down before it is rebuilt, and undocumented code takes longer to read than to rewrite.
• Queries. Saved queries that feed other queries are common. Untangling a chain of twenty is real work.
• Connections. Imports from Excel, exports to QuickBooks, emails sent through Outlook. Each one is a piece to rebuild and test.
• Dirty data. Duplicate customers, dates typed as text, a notes field doing the job of five columns. Cleaning it costs less before the move than after.

You can count most of this yourself. Open the file, look at the navigation pane, and write down how many tables, queries, forms, reports, macros and modules it lists. Those six numbers make a far better first conversation than the file size.

Web app vs SQL Server back end with Access front end

There are two common ways to replace an Access database, and they cost very different amounts.

Keep the Access screens, move the data to SQL Server

The tables move to SQL Server or Azure SQL, and the Access forms and reports stay on each desk, linked to the new tables. This is the cheaper and faster route, and it is what most people mean when they ask for an Access to SQL Server migration price. It removes the 2 GB file limit, puts the data on a proper server with backups and permissions, and lets more people work at once.

What it does not fix: everyone still needs Access on a Windows PC, working from home still means a slow remote connection, and the VBA that only one person understands is still there.

Replace it with a web app

Every form and report gets rebuilt to run in a browser, on a desk or a phone, with no Access licenses to keep. The access database to web app cost is higher up front, because nothing from the old screens carries over. In return, crews in the field and staff at home use the same system, and the business rules end up written down instead of buried in code.

Which one fits depends on where your people work and what is breaking. If everyone sits in one office and the screens work well, the first route may be enough. If people need it from a truck or a job site, or the code itself is the problem, the second one pays for itself. The audit says which, and sometimes it says to leave the file alone for now.

For contractors, the file usually tracks job costs, change orders and field hours. Our page on Access migration for construction covers what those systems tend to need.

How long it takes and how you keep working

From audit to cutover, a single-department database usually takes eight to twelve weeks. A larger file with several departments takes about three months, and a multi-module system can run to a year. The schedule is written into the quote, so you know the month you switch before work starts.

Your staff keep using the Access file the whole time. The new system runs beside it during a parallel run until the numbers in both agree, and the old file is switched off only after that. We wrote up how we retire Access without stopping work step by step, if you want the detail.

Signs your Access file is about to fail

Most Access files keep working for years and then fail on an ordinary morning. These signs mean the morning is getting closer:

• The file is creeping toward the 2 GB limit, or Compact and Repair has gone from a yearly chore to a weekly one.
• People see “unrecognized database format” or other corruption errors, usually after someone lost their connection mid-save.
• It only works on one machine, or on one old version of Office that nobody dares update.
• A move to 64-bit Office broke the code, because older VBA declarations will not run without changes.
• Two people can’t edit at once without locking each other out.
• The person who built it has left, retired or stopped answering questions about it.
• Working from home means a remote connection so slow that people print records instead.

Two or more of these is a good reason to get the free audit now, while the file still opens, rather than after.

The Access migration service page covers what a migration includes and how the four stages run.