It isn't the number of tables that makes a query not updateable, it is the relationships. There is no Cartesian Product here. There are 2/3 lookups and 2/3 hierarchical levels. I don't remember the query exactly. I've got updateable forms with a dozen tables. Take a look some time at my "Bound denormalized form" sample. It lets you take a properly normalzed table and make it look like a spreadsheet for data entry and it is all done with queries.