Versioning systems are great for me as a business entity. It gives me control over updates and changing objects and code, allowing me to go to previous versions easily and prevents the dreaded “Where did that feature go?” problem.

But what if the customer wants to start updating the database or play around with it?

I think a couple of good options would be to create a sandbox copy for them. Have them make the changes they want and then hand the resulting database back off to you to export it into your versioning control system. If your VCS has a lot of extraneous exported fields that create havoc with other changes you’ve made, you can use a database comparison tool to look for only objects that have truly changed in the db and only export those objects.

This method works well if the user isn’t changing much.

It gets much more difficult if the user / customer is trying to hire multiple Access devs from different organizations. My suggestion for customers that wish to do that is: DON’T. Pick one development company to develop one database. This will reduce your headaches and expenditures considerably.