I gave up on Access when I realized that the basic database wasn't too hard, but producing all the "reports" I absolutely needed would be a LOT of work.
I took the cowards way out and still use the existing dBase for DOS database which already has all the required "reports". I use DOSbox to run it under Windows 7 (et seq.)
My database has about 38000 entries and a lot of fields for each. Excel (or Open/Libre Office CALC) would be appropriate for a smaller database.