Hi WWDMark,

That seems to be quite a common problem from what I've seen in busines, Excel is just so convenient for most users since is is more WYSIWYG than most other solutions, and although I love Excel very much, it isn't always the best solution for departments to use as data storage, which has absolutely nothing to do with Excel, because it is such an awesome tool, but because it is so easy to do record keeping with it, and because it is part of the Microsoft Office package, every second person with no knowledge of how to use it creates some spreadsheet, containing some (normally very sensitive) information, and as easy as it is for users to create a spreadsheet with some information on, it is just as easy for them to destroy it by sorting a column without extending to other columns, and all kinds of other unique things that they can come up with on a daily basis.

I've had to deal with similar situations in the past, and the only one which seems to work is that you will have to (in your own time) do a proof of concept, showing them all the cool things that you can do with a database based system, things like multiple people working on the same data at the same time (I know Excel has shared workbook functionality, but again, users seem to find exceptional ways of killing it too), but be careful, because if you are the brain behind the wonderful new system, you are the one doing the support on it, and you will always be that person,

No ideas on a freeware HR solution, there you have to think a lot around security, and as soon as reputable security comes in, so does a price tag...

Kind regards