Data validation different excel file

[scipy2002]

Hi all
Will try to explain what i have to do

In one excel file, have an sheet and in the sheet there are different items

Country Item Price
Germany 5440 4000
Italy 3300 2500

This info needs to stay confidential.
I need to create another excel file where people will have a dropdown box representing the Countries in the other file, another dropdown box representing the Items and an empty box where they will introduce a price.
If the price is +-5% of the Item price in first file then to display an approve, if price is out of +-5% to display a reject.
For example i will select Germany, Input 5440 as the Item and then put a price of 5000. This is out of +-5% so it will be a reject.

I don't know how to do this data validation from a different file.
It can be in the same file as the confidential data but i need to hide and make unviewable the information.

Any help will be appreciated.

[dflak]

There is no secure way of doing this. Basically you can use PowerQuery to load the data onto a very hidden sheet. Click the option to refresh on opening.

Then give the user cascading dropdowns (another topic) for the company and items. Once the user enters a price, then you can do a lookup against the hidden sheet.

If the information is there at all, it can be hacked.