First: Thanks to everyone who responded--so quickly!!
This is sort of the blind leading the blind...I wrote a short PERL CGI script to give a truly non-programming person the ability to use a simple form that accepts input and creates an html file (which builds a table of data). My first crack at the CGI has very limited error checking. As I look to improve it, I figured I could capture the date and also increment the record entry counter so Patty only has to worry about a few entry fields. She is the only person besides myself that will probably ever use this. I guess I managed to do a couple things right...my die statements actually have a descriptive string with them. The way I opened the file threw me because a couple variations "did" write, but was incorrect. thanks again, I'm confident this will work. Can't wait to try it out in the office.