Microsoft Access works in the same manner any database does, by storing related information together, and letting you create connections (commonly called relationships) between different things.  The relationships between two different things can be very simple (such as a contact at a customer and the customer itself) or complex.  In the example below, the blue boxes represent the major things we're tracking in our MS Access database tables, and the reports at right show how you can join the related information for analysis and reporting.