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I'm sure this thread got to some conclusion, all i'll say is if your persistent with spreadsheets , then a pivot tables and vlookups are the way to do reporting and segmentation, and dropdowns. Tricky to master but worth it. ... However, it will be a pain in the arse and in the long terms unsupportable. (human error vs ability to constrain input = crap data = massive waste of time & errors) an option (and a good one for your use case : i strongly recommend a simple file based database for this use case This means no SQL server to make life complicated Can be put on a share drive Not vendor specific Options to develop further With an ODBC plugin use from excel. for more info see http://www.sqlite.org/about.html http://www.sqlite.org/download.html for an Access clone on Linux (i just found this OpenSource project - this is not a recommendation - it could be !) http://kexi-project.org/wiki/wikiview/index.php@xxxxxxxxxxxx re: SQL ... its super easy .... Select * from table where field = 'xyz'; but there are lots of tools to make ths pain go away .... Excel with an ODBC connection is an easy as specify a data source and a cell and press ok, the fields maps to the cols and you can add/edit as you like to the data. Solving the user input dilemma: When it comes to the user side ... you should invest a little energy in building an app or a web app. toolkits like cake php can give you validated CRUD web pages with looks ups and other bells a whistles with very minimal effort , investing 2-5 days learning and building something will be a worth while investment .... you will easily waste the same time with excel and get no where near the final outcome. at least with a app route your efforts will persist, and have a positive cumulative effect. and if your worries about infrastructure , just install xamp locally and do everything on your localhost until you get more proficient or want to spend a few # on an pc to make things more reliable ... or even host it cheap web host .. there is certainly no need to invest in expensive hardware. Best of Luck Jay -- The Mailing List for the Devon & Cornwall LUG http://mailman.dclug.org.uk/listinfo/list FAQ: http://www.dcglug.org.uk/listfaq