VBA: Exhanging information between multiple workbooks without formulas.

[Engineer Joe]

Ok, so I've got this addin that we use pretty often for checklists that are designed to make sure different equipment in the construction industry is installed correctly. These checklists exist in excel, and there are a number of different formats I'm considering for recording the info in excel, but I'd like some advice that falls a bit outside of the typical VBA forum from some folks who might have seen this type of thing in the past. Lets say I have 100 different checklists represented as workbooks in a folder. If, when executing a checklist for any given piece of equipment, I encounter an issue (e.g. something is wrong with the way a piece of equipment is installed), then I'd like to record some parameters in an "Issue Log." One constraint is that multiple users may be working in the folder and they may not always have access to the actual folder as much of this work is done in areas with no internet or cell service. This is where I'd like some advice: I'm thinking of using Dropbox as it allows a version of syncing that is relatively cheap. And I'll store each parameter for each issue in a hidden worksheet in the workbook representing the relevant checklist. So, it can just be sitting there as an issue with all it's little "issue parameters" in a column. So, multiple users, same folder, off-line. I'm thinking something simple like dropbox or some other cheap syncing folder structure. And maybe just having a button available in the addin to synchronize all files in a given folder to the Workbook that represents the issues log. The problem is that I would like to prevent any one user from actually manually opening the issues log. I'd like for the synchronization command to open the issues log via code and make changes based on all the files in the given folder/sub-folders. If anyone has a similar set-up or would recommend an alternative approach, I'd like to hear it. I only want to do this one time and get it right, which will require planning. I'm contemplating actually storing all the issues and parameters in a txt file and then populating an issues log in Excel on command, but I'm not sure if that has a real advantage. I definitely need to be able to send data to the issues log workbook and I guess I do need to be able to open a manual version of it, because I need to be able to mark items off the list. And when I mark them off the list, they need to actually be marked off in the actual workbooks. I'll have to limit this syncing process and manual manipulation of the issues log to when the user has access to the online files...anyway, I know this post doesn't have a really targeted question with a direct answer...just looking to see if anyone has tried something similar and what that looks like for you...