hi tom, appreciate the reply, as well as the nifty use of countif formula =D
database is also fodder for pivot table, if using a dynamic data source are
there any issues i need to know about?

"Tom Ogilvy" wrote:

No macros are necessary:

in sheet1 A1:A30 put in your 20 or 30 values

in the next empty column in the sheet with your data (assume account numbers
are in column C, assume the empty column is M) so in M2

=Countif(Sheet1!$A$1:$A$30,C2)

fill down the column and apply an autofilter. Filter on zero

select all the rows except row 1. Delete the rows. Only the visible rows
will be deleted. Remove the Autofilter.

dleete the "dummy" column.