Looking for a program to help with the data on excel - before I get fired by my boss

sounds like an access solution may go someway to help you

how big is the data getting and likely to get to ?

do you know or have MS access on the PC

I have Access but never used it!

that may be a problem then, unless you learn access

5000 people - does that represent 5000 rows of data on excel ? and over what time period is the data -

5000 rows is not a lot of data

also you may be able to use a pivot table and filter the information that way ?
using a table for the data the pivot table will update easily

do you know pivot tables at all

Benyben123, Good afternoon.

I donīt know what you can call:
"...My boss says to me: find us a program that is easy to use, that can collect all this info and make is search for data easily..."

Excel have all the facilities that you can have without be a hard code programmer.
Maybe, the main problem is organization of data there or how searchs are done or at least how questions arrive to you from your boss etc.
Using filter as you said, can be a quicker way to obtain results.

I donīt know but if you change these data from Excel to a Management system database it will be necessary to build codes to get the same answer that you already obtain nowadays.

Thatīs MY opinion.

If you want, save a example of this file at a free site, www.speedyshare.com and put link here. May be we can give you some better advice after see it.

I agree TOTALLY with our friend Pete_UK

as has been said , and i mentioned

5000 rows. about 11 columns.

is not a lot of information

post an example here with dummy data (make sure no real names or address etc ) , you can attach a file directly here , and some of the information you are asked for like the searches or answers you need to provide are asked for and we can see how that may work best

you dont say the things you want to do ?

I have added a month column and also made the data into a table - so as you add rows it copies any formula and will update a pivot table
i have just added sum numbers for the SUM

then using a piviot table
you now have how paid and month information - which you can easily change

and it can be formatted to look pretty and produce a nice report when printed

etaf has the right idea in using the Pivot Table as many different reports can be created quickly once you get used to working with Pivot Tables.

If the Date Field is included in the Row Labels of the Pivot Table and is the first field, you can right click in the Date column and Group By Years and Months. This will allow you, when you have several years worth of data to extract data by date range for individuals, method of payment, etc.

If you will need to print out individual reports for individuals giving their contributions (for Tax Receipts as an example) then a database is the way to go. Using a database you can have many reports prepared ahead of time and call on them as needed.

yes, group by is a good option, so you can ignore my Month field and use the group by option

also a change in layout and format like the attached

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