Ick. I used to do that kind of stuff - I was a major Excel junkie. But then I got Tableau. Way better - I mean leaps and bounds better. And it's actually fun. http://www.tableausoftware.com/

Check out Stephen Few's blog http://www.perceptualedge.com./ Good info there. For my money, Tableau is the way to go. It's cheap enough and easy to implement. And it reads practically everything. The visualizations are cool too.

Ick. I was an Excel junkie doing stuff like that until I started using Tableau.