Use free LibreOffice Base and MySQL to build a simple daily report entry and query system for a small team of about 10–20 people. Suits small companies, research groups, labs and project teams replacing paper reports and scattered Excel files at low cost.
First decide which fields the daily report needs, such as author, date, work done and notes.
Start with the simplest set of fields and expand later based on actual use.
Create a database on one host computer to store report data centrally, so people don't keep separate Excel files.
For a small internal team, what matters is stability, backups and easy maintenance.
Connect LibreOffice Base to the database and create a daily report form that ordinary staff can fill in easily.
Keep the form as simple as possible so people can open it and fill it in every day.
Distribute the configured Base file to staff computers so multiple members can submit reports from their own machines, with data saved to the host database.
Test connection and saving on 2–3 computers before rolling out.
Query reports by date, person or project, and back up the database regularly for safe long-term use.
A daily report system is used every day — backups matter more than a pretty interface.
