Thank you for your reply.

I decided that I was not comfortable taking the risk and used this as an opportunity to try using SSIS.

I found the learning curve with SSIS quite steep (basic tasks are very straight forward but creating complex packages was more challenging). But I took advantage of the excellent resources available here and on SQLShare http://www.sqlshare.com/channels/SQL.aspx .

I still have not managed to create the highly complex packages that I know are possible but I'm certainly getting there.

Thanks again

lucy