keeping track of payments

Hi all, new to the forum and was looking for some problem solving suggestions

heres my problem

i am a builder and i want to make a spread sheet to keep track of what i have been paid and the labour costs i have paid out

so i am working on 20 houses that all have 7 stages of payment each, and 5 to 8 men working on them who receive a price for each stage, but are paid a portion of that price each week while they are working on that stage

what i am trying to do is set up a sheet to keep track of what has been paid and the balance remaining for each stage and what has been received

i have tried doing it a few different ways but im none to clever with spread sheets and what is causing me the problem is next to each payment made i need to put the date and the name of the person who was paid so it always seems to just look a cluttered mess

have any of you got any ideas of how i could simplify this and make it look neat and easy

or alternatively is there some other software that may suit this application better?

thanks