Seeking guidance on the best route to obtain and consolidate information?

I'm a newbie here, and I'm hoping someone might be able to at least point me in the right direction. I'm trying to figure out the best approach to obtain a set of data, and then merge them together so that I could view the monthly report, and also combine them and observe them collectively. I've got a 2010 Excel step by step book, but I don't even know where to begin. I'm hoping that if I let you know the information I'm looking for, you could at least help me find a starting point. Here my situation:

1. I've got 4 divisions that I monitor.
2. There are between 4 to 5 staff within each division.
3. Each staff member would be responsible for completing a monthly report. I want to be able to view their report individually, but also be able to combine them with the others in their division to combine all of the information together. That way, I'll be able to view the division numbers as a whole.
4. I would then like the ability to combine all 4 divisions together and view combined data on everything.

This is where it may get a little tricky. The data I'm seeking isn't necessarily just calculations or monetary information. But, I'm hoping you can help. Some of the information I'm seeking includes:
1. My staff member's information
2. Employees they supervise by name
3. Employees work location (for example, 5260)
4. The hire date of the employee
5. The date the employee was "cut loose" to work on their own
6. The current workload of that employee (example, 75)

I'm trying to be able to track employee progress from hire date through the date they are "cut loose" on their own. I would be able to identify trends in certain areas, and even trends by division (4). That way, I would know where I need to focus my efforts on improving things. I hope this makes sense?

Any guidance would be greatly appreciated. Some other info that may help. I do have a central server that I could "house" the working document. I'm not sure if that would be the best route to go. There are some instances where one of my staff may not be able to access the server and would have to complete their report offline and submit it via email. I know I could then go in and manually enter (hopefully copy and paste)?

Without an example file its kinda hard to give pointers, because Excel is a massive program and can accomplish many tasks. That being said, the same task can be accomplished in many ways, many of which depend on your own knowledge, skill and understanding of Excel in general.

As long as the data you recieve is stored in a strict and defined matter, it can be assembled in a master file, even with a simple copy/paste.

Think of Excel as a massive table with rows and columns. Usually columns are given names and the data is filled in each row.

When you have prepared a table full of information you can use the many features of Excel to make calculations and pull certain data from that table using various methods. It is usually at this moment, when new users stumble upon problems with the exact method "How do I do this...?" and at this point, when an exact problem is presented an exact solution is much easier to provide.

Bmouse,

Is there a way to attach an example?

When replying to a post, click Go Advanced and then click Managa Attachments

Bmouse,

Got it. I'm attaching an idea of the information I would be looking for. This is some of the information I would be interested in idenfitying:

Information Interested in Receiving and Documenting
• # of new staff, for each district, division, and all combined
• Assigned workload compared to graduation date
• Would like an equation to calculate the length of time from graduation date until supervisor field release date
• Need to make it easy to copy / paste into a worksheet? I'll be receiving these monthly updates individually through email.
• Is it possible to copy / paste but only have certain data compute?
• Possible to filter the data, by date, etc?

I'm guessing that Excel is going to be the way to go...right?

1. What is the definition for new staff? Which entries in your table refer to new staff?
2. How exactly you want to compare graduation date and workload? Between all staff?
3. The formula for this is =DAYS360(D2;E2;TRUE)
4. If you have a file with a structure identical to yours, just copy and paste the data into your file.
5. Not sure what you mean by that.
6. Many kinds of filters are possible. You can filter out every person named John or Henry, every person with surname Smith, every person hired on 01.01.2013 etc.

A little advice when working with dates - make sure that the cells are properly formatted (Right-Click, Format Cells, Date) and that all dates follow the same structure, otherwise you might experience problems when using formulas. I usually prefer this format 31.01.2014 (DD.MM.YYYY)