Numbers v. Excel - Sort capabilities

I have a complex Excel spreadsheet that I have developed over many years to handle my accounting needs.
I would love to walk away from MS Office and use iWork exclusively. I have figured out how to convert my Excel monster to a working numbers spreadsheet, but I am encountering a "deal breaker".
Numbers cannot handle the database! I have tried simply importing the Excel worksheet and I have tried creating a new worksheet in Numbers and doing a copy/paste on just the data from Excel - just 617 lines of data at this point in the year.
Numbers cannot sort the data base - it hangs every time and I wind up using a force quit on Numbers. Excel 2004 handles the same data on a three deep sort in less than a second.
What is going on here? Is Numbers just still too weak - 'not ready for prime time' - that it cannot handle a database of more than 100 lines? I am a bit disappointed and wondering if anyone here can confirm what I suspect or give me some kind of brilliant solution.
Thanks for any feedback. (jk)

Yvan,
Thank you for sharing. I actually copied your use of the OFFSET command when I first bought Numbers and began the attempt to convert from Excel.
My spreadsheet includes eight different accounts so I added an IF command to apply the debits and credits to the correct accounts (columns). You are correct, with three to 20 lines of data, it works just fine.
In real life, the data runs to over 1,000 lines and Numbers "hangs" when attempting to sort the data for statement reconciliation or tax preparation.
As Jerrold Green noted above, I might be able to "go out to lunch or leave it overnight" to complete the sort, but that delay makes Numbers unusable for me. (As noted above, I have - grudingly - reverted to Excel which sorts properly and quickly.)
So - I guess we are both correct - Numbers will work properly if the formulas are written properly but the Sort function is so slow with real life data as to be unusable - for me.
BTW - I am marking your answer Helpful because you are correct about the use of the OFFSET command and I thank you for that. Maybe I will be able to use in in iWork 10 when they figure out the Sort algorithm.

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