Extracting data from multiple files -best strategy

Hi,

I have around 4 files which all contain data in the same format. These are being edited by various people, but other people need to be able to see a snapshot of them combined.

I was thinking that one way would be to have a file which used vba to import the data from these four every time it's opened. Is that the best way or would some in-built data query be a better approach?