import excel data into MySQL via PhpMyadmin

Hi Folks, I'm relatively new to PHP and MySQL but I do feel I know enough to be a teeny weenie bit dangerous.  At any rate, I'm trying to be a hero for my company and create a web based solution to replace a rather clunky Access database everyone here is using.  The access database revolves around importing large amounts of expense transactions we get from our credit card company in the form of an excel sheet.  Many of the columns in the excel sheet are extraneous.  The vendor who built the access database filters this information out, and I need to do something similar in MySQL.  Should I manually remove the extraneous columns, convert the chart to CSV and import, or is there a way to do this programatically?  Thanks!