Extracting data from multiple files

Hello all,

I am a network admin for an engineering company. I was just asked a question about excel that goes beyond my expertise.

When we fill out our time sheets in excel, we have multiple rows in which we can specify the client we are working for. For example, if we work for client 123 for 3.5 hours and then work for client 789 for 4 hours, we can put both in the same time sheet. We supply the client number in one column of the row, and then the hours worked. A few columns down there is a fresh row for inputting data for another client. This form of input is required because our engineers are charged out to clients according to how many hours they spend on the project.

One of the clients requests that we send them all timesheets that are referred to their projects. Is there a way (or program) to look in a directory of excel documents, scan the documents for a specific string of text, and then extract that entire row to something?

OR

I'm not sure if this would be allowed by our accounting department, but is there a way to look through a list of excel documents and grab the files that contain a specific string of text?

Thank you so much for your help with this!
-Caleb