Spreadsheet functionality in a Notes' database

[groundclutter]

Here is my design problem...

I have a requirement to take downloaded client fee information from a mainframe database and load it into a Notes database. From there, I need to email each group project leader a notification that they are to "maintain" their assigned clients' fees. The user currently uses spreadsheets to accomplish this and would like to see the spreadsheet functionality continue to be utilized. Upon successfully changing the fee structures for their assigned clients, the information is stored back in notes (and subsequently uploaded to the mainframe) for a complete "company picture".

My design question relates to the spreadsheet functionality. If a user selects on a given client in their view and opens given spreadsheet, how do I read the spreadsheet data back into Notes? How do I compile multiple spreadsheets (from many clients and many different project leaders) into one view in Notes? Do I read them into a "temporary view"? Security is also a critical issue as it needs to be as tight as possible. Possibly emailing the client fee information to the incorrect rep would be considered a "catastrophic" error.

One last note...this is only needed for annual pricing. Therefore, the application will only be utilized once per year and does not need to be, perhaps, as elegant as a daily use application.

My initial thinking is to eliminate the spreadsheet functionality altogether and try to duplicate this functionality within notes' views and agents. Does anyone have design suggestions for this operation?

Thanks in advance for your help!

 

[pmonett]

You can use NotesFX and select key values in the spreadsheet for synchronization with the Notes doc. All you would need to do is then list the pertinent info in views and let users do their own overviewing.
You could also build a view with categories on multiple criteria, and create a form with an embedded single category view that calls on info in the form to build the selection formula used to recover the docs.
This is probably not clear enough, but I'll refrain from muddying the waters more and wait for your questions.

Pascal.