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I'm looking to create some batch jobs in MS-Access that generates a report and then sends it out to various recipients every month.

The box is running Windows Server 2003 and doesn't have MS-Access installed on it. Is MS-Access 2007 compatible with this OS? Or is there an alternative to MS-Access that I can use.

The database just sits on the HDD as a MDB file, so I could set up a ODBC connection and poll data from it through there to be generated by another program. Are there any suggestions for alternative programs in this respect?

Sql Server Reporting Services has this built in (I assume you mean emailing the reports). I'm guessing the Express/free version has the scheduling capability too, but I've never used it. You probably could keep everything in an mdb file too. http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/libr ... 65166.aspx

Sql Server Reporting Services has this built in (I assume you mean emailing the reports). I'm guessing the Express/free version has the scheduling capability too, but I've never used it. You probably could keep everything in an mdb file too.

Unfortunately, the Express (free) version of reporting services does not support scheduled delivery of reports; and I don't believe it will connect to an .mdb file either - report data has to come from the local SQL instance.

That said, getting the data from Access to SQL is relatively easy, and there are ways to call the Reporting Services web service via an application, so you could always build an app that calls the reports on a schedule and then mails them out for you...