A query (containing 4 left outer joins) takes above 6 minutes to
return a recordset of 212 rows.
I am passing a sql string from MS Excel 2003 to MS Sql Server 2000 to
run the query and return the recordset to a spreadsheet. I get the
message "Timeout expired" from Excel.

The database is from a legacy application which keeps transaction data
in separate tables for each financial year. Hence, to use stored
procedures would mean having one for each financial year, whereas I
can conveniently change the table name in a cell in the spreadsheet
based on the year required.

Please help. Thanks a lot