How to Link Excel to Access Database

Pairing Excel with Microsoft Access can transform your static spreadsheet setup into a dynamic, more powerful data system. If you've ever felt Excel slowing down with large datasets or struggled to maintain data integrity, this connection is the solution you need. This guide shows you exactly why and how to link the two, letting you own a robust backend in Access while still using Excel's fantastic analysis and charting features.

Why Link Excel to an Access Database?

You might be wondering, "Why not just keep everything in Excel?" Excel is incredible for many things - quick calculations, creating charts, and making data look presentable. But once you start working with thousands, or even hundreds of thousands, of rows of data, its limitations become clear.

This is where Microsoft Access steps in. Access is a database management system (DBMS), which is specifically designed to store, manage, and query large amounts of structured data efficiently. Think of it this way:

Excel is a fantastic workshop. It has all the tools you need - PivotTables, formulas, charts - to analyze and shape your data into something meaningful.
Access is a massive, organized warehouse. It's built to store enormous amounts of information safely and systematically, ensuring everything is consistent and easy to find.

By linking them, you get the best of both worlds. You can keep your core data in the secure, high-performance Access "warehouse" while using your familiar Excel "workshop" to pull in the data you need for your reports and analysis. This approach keeps your Excel files small and fast because they only contain the summary reports, not the mountains of raw data.

This separation helps with a few key things:

Performance: Your Excel file won't crash or bog down when you're working with data from Access.
Data Integrity: Access can enforce rules to prevent incorrect data from being entered, keeping your information clean and reliable.
Multi-User Access: Access is better designed for multiple people to work with the same data simultaneously without creating conflicts or overwriting each other's work.

A Quick but Important Note: Linking vs. Importing

Before jumping into the "how," it's vital to understand the difference between linking data and importing data. It’s a small distinction that makes a massive difference in how your files behave.

Importing data is like taking a screenshot. When you import an Excel table into Access, you are creating a one-time copy of that data at that exact moment. The new table in Access is completely disconnected from the original Excel file. If you update the numbers in your Excel spreadsheet, your Access table won't see those changes.

Linking data is like sharing a live document. When you link an Excel file to Access, you create a direct, live connection to the source file. The data still lives in the Excel spreadsheet, but Access can see it and work with it in real-time. If you update the data in the Excel file, the changes are instantly reflected in the linked table in Access. This is what keeps your data current without any manual re-importing.

For most ongoing reporting and analysis, linking is the way to go because it ensures you're always working with the most up-to-date information.

How to Link an Excel Worksheet into Access (Excel → Access)

Let's say you have a weekly sales report exported from another system as an Excel file, and you want to use it within your larger Access database. Linking it is the perfect solution. Here’s how you do it, step-by-step.

Step 1: Prep Your Excel File

A little preparation goes a long way. Before you link, make sure your Excel file is well-structured:

Data must be in proper table format. This means a structured list of rows and columns with no title rows spanning multiple cells or empty breaks.
Column headers are a must. Your first row should contain unique, clear names for each column (e.g., "Sale Date," "Product Name," "Amount").
Format your data as an official Excel Table. You can do this by selecting your data range and pressing Ctrl + T. This makes the connection more stable and automatically accommodates new rows you add later.
Remove blank rows or columns within your data range.

Step 2: Start the Linking Process in Access

Now, open the Access database where you want the linked table to appear.

Navigate to the External Data tab on the Ribbon at the top.
In the "Import & Link" group, click on New Data Source.
From the dropdown menu, select From File, and then choose Excel.

This will open the "Get External Data – Excel Spreadsheet" wizard window.

Step 3: Complete the Wizard

This is where you tell Access what you want to do.

In the wizard, the first thing is to select your file. Click the Browse... button and navigate to the location of the Excel workbook you want to link.
Next, you'll see three options. Select the second option: Link to the data source by creating a linked table. This is the key step.
Click OK.
The "Link Spreadsheet Wizard" will now guide you. If your Excel file has multiple worksheets or named ranges, it will ask you to choose which one to link. Select the correct one.
Make sure the box labeled First Row Contains Column Headings is checked. Since you prepped your file, this should be the case. This tells Access to use your headers as the field names.
Click Next.
Finally, give your linked table a name. Access will usually suggest the name of the worksheet. You can keep it or change it to something more descriptive.
Click Finish.

That's it! You will now see your new linked table in the Navigation Pane on the left side of your Access window. It will have a small Excel icon next to it, visually reminding you that its data lives "outside" of Access.

How to Connect to Access Data from Excel (Access → Excel)

This workflow is often even more common. Your database gurus maintain all the business data in Access, and you just want to pull it into Excel to create a PivotTable or a nice dashboard. The modern way to do this in Excel uses a powerful tool called Power Query, which creates a refreshable connection.

Step 1: Get Started in Excel

Open the Excel workbook where you want to show the Access data.

Click on the Data tab on the Ribbon.
In the "Get & Transform Data" group on the far left, click Get Data.
From the dropdown, hover over From Database, then select From Microsoft Access Database.

Step 2: Choose Your Database and Table

Excel will now ask you to locate the data source.

A file explorer window will open. Navigate to your Access database file (.accdb) and click Import.
The Navigator window will appear. This is a previewer that lets you see all the tables and queries available inside that Access database.
Click on the name of a table or query on the left. You'll see a preview of its data on the right. Select the item you want to connect to. If you want to bring in multiple tables (e.g., to create relationships in a PivotTable), you can check the box for Select multiple items.

Step 3: Load the Data into Excel

Instead of clicking "Load" right away, click the small down arrow next to it.

Choose Load To.... This gives you more control over how the data is brought into Excel.
The "Import Data" dialogue box will open. Here you can choose to bring the data in as an Excel Table, a PivotTable Report, or just create the Connection Only. For most reports, starting with a Table or a PivotTable is best.
Select where you want the data to be placed (e.g., in a new worksheet).
Click OK.

Excel will work for a moment, and then your Access data will appear in your worksheet! A Queries & Connections pane will also show up on the right, listing the live link you just created.

Maintaining and Refreshing Your Linked Data

Your connections are now live, but it's good to know how to manage them.

Manually Refreshing in Excel

When the data in the source Access database is updated, you'll want to see those changes in your Excel report. To do that, simply go to the Data tab and click the large Refresh All button. Excel will automatically go back to the Access file, pull the latest data, and update your tables and PivotTables accordingly.

Automating the Refresh

You can even set Excel to refresh for you automatically.

On the Data tab, click the Queries & Connections button to open the pane.
Right-click on your connection and choose Properties....
In the Query Properties window, you can set the data to Refresh every X minutes or, a popular option, to Refresh data when opening the file.

Beware of Broken Links

One final tip: these links depend on file paths. If you move or rename the source Excel or Access file, the connection will break. If this happens, you’ll need to edit the source in Excel's connection properties or use the "Linked Table Manager" under the External Data tab in Access to update the file location.

Final Thoughts

Connecting your spreadsheets and databases turns two great tools into one seamless reporting powerhouse. By using Access for heavy data storage and Excel for nimble analysis, you effectively solve the biggest limitations of each and create a workflow that is efficient, scalable, and always up-to-date.

While linking Excel and Access is a fantastic way to streamline reporting from those specific sources, we know most modern businesses have their data scattered everywhere - in Google Analytics, Shopify, Salesforce, Facebook Ads, and a dozen other platforms. Pulling it all together manually into a spreadsheet is a huge time-drain. We built Graphed to erase this friction completely. You can connect all your business data sources with one-click integrations and then use plain English to build live, interactive dashboards in a matter of seconds, asking the questions you need answered without ever touching a manual export or configuring a single database connection again.