Clarification, because I think you answered this by implication... but I want to be sure about the requirements. Are you creating a new spreadsheet every so often? Or is this sheet going to have a history going back in time for all the past absences?
If this is something that gets created periodically, say once per month, and just updated now and then, that solution is incredibly different in complexity from something that is created once and never loses data even if it is more than a year old.
Not only that, but if it is regenerated every now and then, there is the possibility that, because it would be relatively smaller (lacking tons of history) that it would be practical to update the Access tables and then just rebuild it all the way, from scratch, with every update. If it is too big because of its historical baggage, then a different method becomes significant.
EDIT: Not to mention that you ought to have a row with YEAR in it if it has enough historical range. So educate us as to that aspect of what is being displayed.