Excel has some severe limitations! I.E Cell reference from one Worksheet to the next.
What? You can reference cells in other worksheets and even entirely different files (workbooks). since some of the very earliest versions.
C:\file.xls!Sheet2!A3 for example
That being said what is being done here is the common trap of using a Excel spreadsheet to deal with database records. Access, or, depending on the scope of the application, a even bigger DB product (SQL Server, mySQL, Oracle) definitely would better manage the data better, they're designed for that very purpose after all.