Creating Panel Data Format in Excel

[kulbirs]

I have peculiar problem with design of my panel data format. I have 300 firms for which I need to collect data about 15 variables from year 2009-2013. Each variable has around 2-5 characteristics, whose data also need to be collected. I designed the panel data format something like this:

Company Year Variable Var1-Char1 Var2-char2 Var1-Char3 Var2-Char1 Var2-Char2 Var3-Char1 Var3-Char2 . . .
Firm1 2009 Var1
Firm1 2009 Var2
Firm1 2009 Var3
Firm1 2010 Var1
Firm1 2010 Var2
Firm1 2010 Var3
Firm1 2011 Var1
Firm1 2011 Var2
Firm1 2011 Var3
Firm2 2009 Var1
Firm2 2009 Var2

The characteristics of variables will contain data either in currency, numbers, or dummy values.

Is the format correct? If not, kindly suggest the correct panel data format, I am using Eviews version 7.

[EViews Gareth]

What are you planning on doing with it in EViews?