I'm new to this community/forum, so please forgive me if I miss any normal question protocols.

There isn't exactly a protocol, per se, but How (Not) To Ask A Question would be a useful read for learning how to ask questions in such a way as to get a quality response.

That said, I agree with the monk who mentions thinking about Excel as a reporting requirement. I suggest "collecting" the data into a database (see DBD::SQLite2 if you can't install an RDBMS on your server) or a CSV file (using Text::CSV_XS), and having a separate report-writer that creates the Excel file when it is needed.

Depending on your requirements, a CSV file might be acceptable for download, as it opens directly in Excel without a hitch.