Nobody knows how it was built
Whoever built it left long ago. The file has been modified by three people since, and nothing is documented.
By situation
It's been running since 2009 on a machine nobody dares update.
An old Access database is rarely replaced in one go: the approach that works is leaving it read-only while the new system takes writes, area by area. The data is the real asset — often fifteen years of customer history that exists nowhere else — and it dictates the schedule, not the technology.
What brought you here
One machine keeps it alive
An old machine in a corner, restarted only as a last resort and never updated. The company's continuity plan sits on that hard drive.
Remote work is impossible
You have to be physically at the machine, or go through a temperamental remote desktop. Every new hire discovers this within two days.
What we actually do
We read the structure first, not the screens
Tables, relations, queries, rules hidden in forms. What was built by accretion contains business decisions that must be recovered before they're replaced.
Migration happens by area, not all at once
We move one area at a time — customers, then orders, then invoicing — with a rollback available at each step. A single big-bang cutover on a Friday night is the most reliable way to lose a week.
The old database stays readable
It's frozen read-only, not deleted. For months, someone will need to check a 2016 file in it — and that possibility is worth more than the disk space it costs.
When this isn't for you
This isn't for you if the database serves one person for occasional use: migrating it would cost more than the risk it creates. It isn't for you either if you want the identical application in a browser — reproducing twenty years of habits without questioning any of them means paying for the same irritants in a newer window.
No sales page writes this section. That's precisely why it's here: it saves you a thirty-minute call, and saves us an engagement we'd decline anyway.
Questions we get on this
Can we keep Access during the transition?
Yes, and it's usually recommended. The two systems coexist through the cutover, the old one going read-only as each area moves. Operations don't stop.
Our data is messy. Is that a blocker?
No — it's normal after fifteen years, and it's an opportunity. Inconsistencies are listed and you decide which to fix and which to keep as is. What would be a blocker is cleaning them without asking you.
Neighbouring situations
Fifteen minutes to find out whether we can be useful.
You leave with what we saw, in writing, even if we never work together.