#from elsewhere in my code ...

$db=DBI->connect('DBI:mysql:invoices',[username],[password], { RaiseError => 0, AutoCommit => 1 });

#$rawDB is set to the table name

my $insertCommand = "INSERT INTO $rawDB (sheet_no, sheet_name, item, coll, roww, category) 
VALUES ('$currentSheet', '$sheetname', '$cellData', '$curcol', '$currow', '');";

my $result = insertItem($insertCommand);
#....

sub insertItem {
	(my $insertCom) = @_;
	
	$dbHandle=$db->prepare($insertCom);
    my $result = $dbHandle->execute();
	
	return $result;
}