Email excel workbook and automatic updating

**andymcnichol** · 01-26-2013, 07:18 AM

Hi,

Im not sure if this can be done...

At work we have a list of projects list containing about 5000 different projects we have been pricing for over the years. We have sales reps out on the road who chase the work down with clients and deal with certain areas of the country. On the table we have each job listed by its quote number (unique identifier) project name, value, regional area and lastly by sales rep initial.

Each week the admin team send out to the reps fill out what we call a "rep report". This contains extracted data from the master quote list workbook based on sales rep initial. The data sent out to each rep is a list of targets he has to chase each month, each week he has to update certain fields and email this workbook back to admin to update onto the master workbook.

This is a labour intensive process and takes up a lot of admin time.

IS there a way I can link the extracted data from the master workbook to the data in the "rep report" workbook so that it can be emailed to the rep via outlook, updated by them and then sent back to admin where it can be automatically uploaded into the master workbook?

Thanks

**Leith Ross** · 01-26-2013, 07:50 PM

Hello andymcnichol,

I am working on a project with a lot of similar needs as your own. The emailing and updating has been a thorn in my side from the beginning since the client wants to use only Office programs to minimize costs and compatibility issues. My current strategy is move the critical components to the cloud to be shared. The advantage is everyone can be updated in real time. Only links to cloud information are emailed. This allows large files to be easily accessed without email size limitations and see the data displayed as you intended.

There are several platforms to choose from. I am going with Microsoft's SkyDrive. SkyDrive syncs phones, desktops, laptops, etc. so everyone stays connected. You can purchase up to 100 gb of data storage for $50 (US) annually. This may or may not be practical for you to accomplish right now. Since my project is in the beginning stages, it is easy to do but sooner or later you need to make the move.

**andymcnichol** · 01-26-2013, 08:26 PM

Thank you very much for replying first and foremost.

Just to get this correct..

So your saying if I create a link to a workbook for the non critical cells that the sales reps update and then put it on something like a common user Google drive folder, the reps can update their information and in real time as soon as they save and close the workbook from their side it will update when the next sycronisation takes place between Google and the file on my computer which will then update the information on the master workbook?

I'm going to test this out on Monday but many many thanks for informing me of this.