I am trying to redesign some reports along the lines as to what I had at a previous workplace. Can anyone help me work out how it was done.

The reports spreadsheet has a sheet called 'Outstanding Call Details' this contains a table. Each cell in that table has a reference in it that relates to another spreadsheet as follows

='S:\Folder level 1\Folder Level 2\Folder Level 3\[worksheet name.xlsx]Page 1'!E6

Some of the final rows in the table do show a series of 0's

I have been looking at external links and importing data but cannot see how this has been done or if there is a better way to do it.

It sounds like the table in the 'Outstanding Call Details' sheet is linked to data from another spreadsheet. Here's how you can link a table in Excel 2013 to data from another spreadsheet:

1. Open both the spreadsheet with the table you want to link and the spreadsheet with the data you want to link to.
2. In the spreadsheet with the table, select the cell where you want to insert the link.
3. Type the equals sign (=) to start a formula.
4. Switch to the other spreadsheet and select the cell or range of cells you want to link to.
5. Switch back to the original spreadsheet and finish the formula by typing the cell or range reference. For example, if you want to link to cell A1 in the other spreadsheet, your formula would look like this:
   Code:

   ='[other spreadsheet.xlsx]Sheet1'!A1

6. Press Enter to create the link.

Once you've created the link, any changes you make to the data in the other spreadsheet will be reflected in the linked table in the original spreadsheet. If you want to update the link manually, you can right-click on the linked table and select 'Refresh'.

It's possible that the series of 0's you're seeing in some of the final rows of the table are placeholders for empty cells in the linked data. If the linked data doesn't have any values in those cells, Excel will display 0's in the linked table. You can hide these 0's by selecting the table, going to the 'Design' tab in the ribbon, and unchecking the 'Total Row' option.