I wouldn’t want to be without one. I’ve used them multiple times for things where it would get too complex or awkward in a spreadsheet tool. Recently, for instance, I’ve created a database for a non-profit I manage to oversee potential donors, donation requests and donations, and keep things much more organized than I could with a simple spreadsheet. Yes, there’s more upfront work, but it makes the data that much easier to work with.

I literally only installed Base in order to be able to print labels on a sheet of stickers. Maybe there’s an easier way to accomplish that but using LibreOffice the simplest working setup I could figure out was using Calc for the data and Writer for setting up the sheet and then for some reason you need Base in order to use the Calc data in Writer.

I’ve done it about once thus far so it’s not a routine process yet, though I did write some notes for myself because otherwise there’s no way I would remember all the necessary steps next time I go to do it. I’ve been thinking of using this setup to replace Microsoft Works for an org that still uses that for this same purpose.