Reports and date formatting

Hello all. I have searched and not been able to find the answer to my question. It's had to have come up, so perhaps I'm not working my question properly.

I am running a report that exports directly to excel and has a column titled "Job number". Examples of what should appear in that column include 10-0088, 08-2593, 09-2498. The issue is that excel automatically converts the number into a date, and I can find no reliable way to convert it back to it's original number (it gives me 253328 when I convert 08-2593 to a general or text format).

I am looking for a solution and it can be something that uses formatting or a formula. My client runs these reports, and can't get the accurate data he needs.

Thank you in advance for any help.