A free database for a small business, and how to tell you need one

The signs a spreadsheet is no longer enough

A spreadsheet is the right tool for a list. It starts to strain when the list is really several lists that refer to each other:

• The same customer’s name and address is typed into the orders sheet, the invoices sheet and the delivery sheet, and the copies no longer agree.
• One order has several lines, and you keep inserting rows under it or adding columns called Item 1, Item 2 and Item 3.
• A lookup breaks because somebody sorted one sheet and not the other.
• Two people need to add records at the same time, and one of them saves over the other.
• You print an invoice or a receipt by copying a row into a layout by hand.

Each of these is what a database is built to solve. It keeps each thing once, in a table of its own, and points to it from everywhere else.

What a database adds

• Tables that refer to each other. An order points at a customer instead of copying them, so correcting an address corrects it everywhere.
• Rules on the records. A date field takes only dates, a required field cannot be left empty, and an order cannot point at a customer who does not exist.
• Queries. Saved questions, such as what is low in stock or who has not paid, answered again whenever you open them.
• Forms for typing records in one at a time, and reports for printing them grouped with totals.

The options, free and otherwise

• Microsoft Access. The long-standing choice for a small business database on Windows, with forms, queries, reports and thousands of templates and tutorials. It runs only on Windows, and comes with some Microsoft 365 plans or on its own.
• LibreOffice Base. Free and open source, part of LibreOffice, with tables, queries, forms and reports in one .odb file, and able to connect to MySQL, PostgreSQL and other servers. Some of its features need Java installed.
• SQLite tools. SQLite is the database inside countless phone and desktop apps, kept as a single file. A free program such as DB Browser for SQLite makes tables and runs SQL in it, though it has no forms or printed reports.
• Online databases. Airtable, Notion’s databases and Zoho Creator work in a browser and are easy to share. The records live on their servers, and the free plans have limits on records or people, with paid plans priced per user beyond them.
• A database server. PostgreSQL and MySQL are free and built for many people at once, but need a computer to run on and someone to look after it. A desktop program can work on their tables, as Access does with linked tables.

Questions that decide it

• How many people add records at once? One or two at different times suits a file on a computer. Several at once suits a server or an online database.
• Must it work without internet? A file on your own computer always does; an online database does not.
• Do you print from it? Invoices, receipts and payslips need reports or print layouts, which SQLite tools lack and online tools vary in.
• Where may the records live? Customer and staff records may have to stay where you can account for them, which favours your own computer or your own server.
• Can you leave later? Check that the records export to CSV or another open format before you rely on any tool.

Start from a sample, not a blank file

The quickest way to learn a database is to open one that already works: Microsoft’s Northwind for Access, the templates that come with LibreOffice, or a ready-made database for your kind of business. Look at how its tables refer to each other, run its saved queries, and only then build your own, or empty the sample and use it.