Hi
There are 4 users, are they?
Is there in every session new information added to old one, or starts all
from clean sheet everytime?
When the info is added to existing one (or the existing info is simply
changed), then let every user have his workbook (same design for every user
preferably) with all info he has entered. Periodically he sends to you a
copy of his workbook.
You have in your computer a summary workbook, and a workbook for every user.
In summary workbook, you create a sheet for every user, where all info from
appropiate user's workbook is retrieved using links. Something like:
A1=IF('C:\My Documents\UsersData\[user1.xls]Data'!A1="","",'C:\My
Documents\UsersData\[user1.xls]Data'!A1)
Additionaly yo can have in summary workbook sheet(s) with summary data,
various reports, etc.
Every time the user sends to you a new copy of his workbook, you overwrite
this users old file - but workbooks name and path to it must remain same as
old one. Now when you open summary workbook again, all new info is there.
When for every period (p.e. for every month) is created a new workbook (and
workbooks for past periods are preserved), let every user have a predesigned
empty workbook (read-only). When new period starts, this empty workbook is
opened and saved under new name (like User1_200412.xls). After the workbook
is filled, the users sends a copy of it to you.
You have in your computer workbooks for every user, and a summary workbook
again - but their names are fixed - p.e. Current1.xls, Current2.xls,
Current3.xls, Current4.xls and CurrentSummary.xls, where in CurrentSummary
are sheets like User1, User2, ... where info is retieved from Current1.xls,
Current2.xls, ... through links - all like described above.
When new period starts, you clear all data from users workbooks in your
computer (it helps to avoid a confusion, from which period are data for an
user).
When you get a workbook copy from user, you overwrite his workbook in your
computer (As Current1.xls, or Current2.xls, or ... ).
After all users workbooks are overwritten, you can preserve this period
data, when you want. For this open summary workbooks and all users workbooks
at once, and save them under different names (and in different location,
when you want) - like
Summary_200412.xls, User1_200412.xls, User2_200412.xls, User3_200412.xls,
User4_200412.xls
All links are adjusted automatically.