Hi there! First post for me, so if I make any mistakes please point them out so I can fix my ways.

I am using .NET 4.0

I got stuck with the task of writing attendance management software that ties to a biometric clock.
I am also in the process of teaching myself C#, and should be considered a noob.

In my current project, I have arrays of strings that I am porting to a DataGridView from a .xlsx file, using the EPPlus.dll. There are several tables worth of data (time punches,employees,settings,ect). I of course need to cross reference the data,add new rows,edit rows, and generally sort it until I am green in the face.

there are only 10 to 30 active employees at any given time,and the clock stores 3 years worth of data, and only overwrites the earliest date punches after.

I tried to do this by referencing the spreadsheet that I dump the clock into, assigning separate tabs for different sets of data and referencing when needed.. That is fine for simple things, like checking for duplicate entries.. but something is missing. It is getting fatter and fatter as time goes on due to the extra effort required to move the data around.

From my reading I collect that I should be possibly making the employees as objects and putting them in a table. Then manipulating the objects as needed, before exporting it back to the spreadsheet..

I have a couple requirements; has to be standalone(no required registry entries,no installations(IE: run from a flash drive on any computer),must use spreadsheets as the final product(no problem), must be very stable(all exceptions handled),needs to be windows 7 compatible

Am I going down the right road assuming that I need a table of objects that I then can bind as a datasource?
If within the constraints of my project, what type of methodology would you use to manage this data from several forms contained within the project?
any suggested reading material?

I thank you for your patience.. I have a hunch I just blew out some neurons while thinking too hard and I am missing the obvious.
any suggestions/comments will be greatly appreciated -ben