Learning and always questioning

My major challenge at the moment is to get so I am as comfortable using Access as I am using Excel. I really need to switch to a data base program for keeping statistics (and analyzing them) on sales of menu items, waitstaff performance, even the interactive program I've written (in Excel) to cost dishes and run inventory. There are a lot of comercial tools you can buy to do this job but they don't operate well enought in this part of the world with it's primitive purchasing systems and from the very basics menu item preparation. The most popular one in Almaty seems to be ISoft.

I should have done this three or four years ago before I got so heavily loaded up on programs I've created in Excel. If I had started then, by now I'd already be better at SQL and working with these table, form, report formats. It's starting to click now but it was tough to begin with. I went to my old reliable and took a course in Access with HP learning Center and that got me moving in the program. I also did a short tutorial provided by Microsoft but it was so old that it wasn't very helpful. Therefore, I still can't do the work I need to be getting done, especially for this consultation in starting up the new fast food outlet. I'm on a real short time frame to be ready for that and I'm still a long ways away. Hope the learning curve shoots skyward soon!