An Access database on the shared drive moves into Microsoft 365 in two parts. The tables and data go into SharePoint lists (no extra licence) or Dataverse (NZ$32.40 per user per month), and Microsoft's own migration tool inside Access handles that part well. The forms, reports and VBA do not move; they are rebuilt as a Power App and Power Automate flows, which is where the work is. For a 5 to 20 person NZ firm the whole job is $4,000 to $18,000 depending on which home the data needs.
The step-by-step for the export tool and the data-type map are on the Power Platform migration hub. The cost, weeks and licence line on one page, with the data-type traps, are at Access to Power Apps in NZ.
If the immediate worry is the Access program itself rather than the file, Access 2016 and 2019 are out of support has the free first step.
What should you use instead of Access?
- SharePoint lists plus a Power App. A handful of simple tables. No licence on top of Microsoft 365.
- Dataverse plus a Power App. Related tables, money or hours on the records, several people editing daily. NZ$32.40 per user per month.
- An Excel table in Teams, or one SharePoint list. One small table and one person. No project needed.
- Access itself, left alone. If one person uses it on one PC and it is not breaking, there is nothing to replace.
The table further down says which of the first three fits your database. The rest of this page is how the move works. What it costs and the weeks it takes sit on the Access to Power Apps cost and method page, and if you want it done for you in Canterbury, that is Access and SQL migration in Christchurch.
Why this is the most common migration I get asked about
Access databases outlive the people who built them. The .accdb on the S: drive was made by a bookkeeper in 2011, it tracks jobs or stock or client files, it has 14 tables, four forms everybody uses and two that no one can explain, and it now has three problems at once: it corrupts when two people open it over the VPN, it lives on a server that stopped getting patches on 13 October 2026, and Access 2016 and 2019 themselves left support on 14 October 2025. Nobody wants to rebuild it from scratch. Nobody has to.
What does Microsoft's migration tool do for you?
Access in Microsoft 365 ships with an export to Dataverse under External Data. It is better than most people expect and it is free. It does four things:
- Validates before it moves. Every table is checked for unsupported data types and oversized values. Rows that fail stay in a local Access table so you can fix them; nothing is dropped quietly.
- Maps the types. Short Text to Text, Long Text to Multiline Text, Yes/No to Yes/No, Decimal to Decimal, Hyperlink to URL, multi-value lookups to Choice columns. Calculated fields become a plain column holding the value; the calculation itself is recreated in Dataverse.
- Relinks Access. After the move, the old Access front end keeps working, now pointed at Dataverse tables in the cloud. Staff can keep using the familiar forms on day one while the Power App is built alongside.
- Can drop the tables into a solution, which matters later when you want a dev copy and a live copy.
Three things it will not do, and you should know before you start: unique indexes are not migrated (they are recreated as alternate keys by hand), Number: Single and Number: Double lose precision past five decimal places unless you change them to Decimal first, and the tool goes to Dataverse only. If SharePoint lists are the right home, the tables go over through Power Automate or a dataflow instead, which is not harder, just a different path.
How do you migrate an Access database to SharePoint lists?
If the answer is SharePoint, the path is different from the Dataverse tool below: the tables go over through Power Automate or a dataflow, one list per table, then the lookups and the Power App are built on top. Keep each table under about 20,000 rows, because that is where list views start to bite (the SharePoint list limits that matter). Forms and reports are rebuilt either way.
How do you use the Dataverse export tool?
- Open a copy of the .accdb in Access from Microsoft 365. The tool is not in Access 2016 or 2019.
- Fix the source first: change Number: Single and Number: Double columns to Decimal where the values need more than five decimal places, note every unique index, and pull attachments and OLE objects out to files.
- External Data, Export to Dataverse. Sign in, pick the environment (Dataverse, or Dataverse for Teams), optionally a solution, and tick the tables.
- Read the validator. It names unsupported types and rows over Dataverse's limits. Choose to fix and rerun, or to migrate the supported rows and keep the rest in a local Access table.
- Let it relink. The Access forms now read and write the cloud tables; staff keep working while the Power App is built.
- Afterwards: recreate unique indexes as alternate keys, rebuild multi-value lookups as Choice columns if flagged, and turn calculated fields back into formula columns.
Six data types that break, and the fix for each, are in the shared type map on the migration hub.
SharePoint lists or Dataverse for an Access database
| If your Access database looks like this | Home | Licence per user, per month |
|---|---|---|
| Two to six tables, under about 20,000 rows each, lookups but no chains of joins, one or two people editing at a time, no invoices or payroll on it | SharePoint lists | $0, included in Microsoft 365 |
| Eight or more related tables, money or hours on the records, several people editing daily, you need to know who changed what, or a table is heading past 20,000 rows | Dataverse | NZ$32.40 (Power Apps Premium, paid yearly) |
| One table, under 500 rows, one person | An Excel table in Teams, or one SharePoint list | $0, and no project needed |
The test is money. If an accountant reconciles anything in this database, it goes to Dataverse, because relationships are enforced there and audit history is a checkbox. If nobody would notice a wrong row for a month, SharePoint is fine and cheaper. The fuller version of that decision is in SharePoint or Dataverse: how to choose, and the SharePoint ceilings that matter are in the 5,000 item list limit.
What gets rebuilt, and why that is the useful part
The forms become a Power App. That sounds like loss, and it is where the hours go, but it is also where fifteen years of workarounds get removed. The form with the button that runs a macro that opens another form that copies a value across: that is one field with a default value now. The report that takes four minutes to open becomes a Power BI page or a filtered view. The VBA that emails the boss on Friday becomes a Power Automate flow that runs on Friday and does not depend on someone's PC being on. In practice the Access front end is used as the spec: I sit with the two people who use it most, screen by screen, and the Power App does what they actually do, not what the 2011 form was designed to do.
What it costs in NZ
| Cost line | To SharePoint lists | To Dataverse |
|---|---|---|
| Data migration, validation, relinking | Included in the build | |
| Power App plus flows to replace forms, reports and VBA | $4,000 to $10,000 | $8,000 to $18,000 |
| Time | Two to four weeks | Three to six weeks |
| Licences after go-live | $0 on top of Microsoft 365 | NZ$32.40 per user per month |
The ranges are my fixed-price bands for firms under 20 staff, from the services page. Undocumented VBA moves a job up the range far more than table count does. If the database has modules no one can explain, budget the top of the band and a week of reading code.
How I run it
- Copy the .accdb and open it somewhere safe. Inventory tables, row counts, relationships, forms, reports, macros, modules, linked tables to anything else.
- Decide SharePoint or Dataverse using the table above, and put a real licence number against your real headcount.
- Fix the source. Change Single and Double to Decimal, sort out the multi-value lookups, delete the two unused tables.
- Trial migration into a dev environment. Read the validator's failures, fix them at the source, run again until it is clean.
- Build the Power App and flows against the migrated data, with the old Access front end still linked and usable.
- Cut over on a Friday, final migration, check row counts and a handful of known records, go live Monday. The .accdb stays on the drive read-only for 60 days.
- Hand over source, credentials and a written map of what lives where.
The weeks by source and destination, where they go and what stretches them: how long moving off an old database takes.
Want the forms and reports to behave exactly as they do today? Copy first, improve second covers what can and cannot be identical.
Before the real records go in, run the trial on a copy and on made-up awkward records; what each catches.
Same route from an older desktop system: Visual FoxPro, and what to do with the data.
Common questions
Can Microsoft Access export straight to Dataverse?
Yes. Access in Microsoft 365 has a built-in migration tool (External Data, Export to Dataverse) that moves tables and rows into Dataverse or Dataverse for Teams and then links the Access front end to them. It validates data types first and keeps any rows that do not fit in a local Access table so nothing is silently lost. It does not migrate forms, reports, macros or VBA.
Should an Access database go to SharePoint lists or Dataverse?
SharePoint lists if the database is a handful of tables under about 20,000 rows each, with simple lookups and no financial records, because lists come with the Microsoft 365 licence you already have. Dataverse if there are real relationships between several tables, money on the records, or more than three people editing at once; that costs Power Apps Premium at NZ$32.40 per user per month.
What happens to my Access forms and reports?
They do not move. Forms are rebuilt as a Power App, reports as Dataverse views or Power BI. Macros and VBA become Power Automate flows or logic in the app. This rebuild is where most of the hours go, and it is also where the old workarounds get removed instead of copied.
How much does it cost to move an Access database to Microsoft 365 in NZ?
For a firm with 5 to 20 staff, a single Access database with a front end lands between $4,000 and $10,000 into SharePoint, or $8,000 to $18,000 into Dataverse, over two to six weeks. The licence line is the bigger long-term number: $0 for SharePoint, NZ$32.40 per user per month for Dataverse.
Where to start
Count the tables and tell me whether money sits on any of them. That is enough for one free 30-minute call to tell you SharePoint or Dataverse, and a fixed price. The migration checklist covers Access as well as SQL Server, and it works with anyone you hire.