Not using Office at all to generate the files, simply exporting a generated XML file that Excel understands. There's probably a way to get XML data into an Access Database, but I'd have to generate all the various things to make it a turnkey interface (i.e. we want to have it be automatically understood and then reimportable into the system (saving the file back as an xml document and then uploading it).

Anyhow, it's academic since excel is the Chosen One - much more pervasive for the account execs than is Access.