I have recently done a method whereby, in VB6, you can click a button and it exports the records to a spreadsheet. as for automation, I suppose you could run the application to check with SQL for changes to the database, I can find you some code where it will export them all to the spreadsheet?

Take a look HERE which is Si's tutorial on automating excel. I havent yet found a way to ammend the data in the spreadsheet, but can create new ones, Si might be able to help with it if we cannot find anything online.

Come to think of it, I dont know if you can just ammend one single line in the spreadsheet with one line out of the database, unless there is a way to do it with an array, but there are ways you can open an existing document, and then just rewrite all the data over it, to an extent that may work, as you wont have to worry about saving multiple copies.