>I have inherited an Access based program which is a mess.

This is a classic problem. I would suggest that upgrading to SQL-Server without changing the design will simply perpetuate the problem, with a larger, possibly slower, more expensive database back-end, without solving the design and maintainability issues.

If you are saying that they are merely transferring the data to SQL-Server, and not taking advatage of the back-end capabilities of SQL-Server, then essentially they are maintaining the "file server" mentality, and adding enormous overhead to what appears to be an unmaintainable application.

Better to redesign the database structure as you suggest, and then modify the Access code to work with the updated structure, (whether the cleaned-up structure stays in Access or is ported to SQL-Server doesn't necessarily matter).

Best would be to dump Access, re-write the whole kaboodle in VFP, using VFP views and then decide if it is necessary to move the tables to SQL-Server at all.

My 2 cents. :-) --- Larry