Increment multiple list items through workflow

Question

Using SP2010: I have a workflow which will need to act upon multiple items in a library by checking to see if one column is less than another column (both numbers), if it is less than, increment the first column in multiple items by one, if first column is equal to second column then do something to multiple items in the list (which match a criteria). If I had to write it out logically, it would look something like this:

• If column one is less than column two then +1 column one to all like items
• else move like items to second list

Obviously, column one and two are number values. If I can expound a little, we have a script which runs. This script runs several times a day (12x at this point). When it runs, it places one to five items into the list. When an item is dropped into the list, the workflow is fired, which sends a to-do item to a group of people. When one person in the group acts upon the item, then completes the task, the workflow continues on the single item. When all of the like items in the iteration has been acted upon, then move all the items into another list (which fires off another workflow, but that is best left for another question). I cannot just move all of the items in the list at a given time, because I have at least one time a day where the script runs two separate iterations at the same time, so I cannot just act upon the entire list when all items in a group are complete.

I am not married to the direction which I'm going. If you think you have a better method of accomplishing what I need to do, by all means let me know! Thanking you in advance for any assistance provide. (I especially appreciate you getting to this point in my diatribe!)

UPDATE: Okay, I figured out part of what I need to do, and that is the incrementation process on the current list item. I figured this out through a little trial and error. So far I am only able to get it to work on the current item ... research is telling me I can only act on one item at a time. If I want to work on multiple items, I have to create separate workflows which will loop through the items in the list, as I understand SP does not actually have the inherent ability to act on multiple items. I have found some references to this, but have not figured out how to implement yet. Will keep looking.

Answer 1

This question is now OBE (Overcome By Events). I have decided to pull my head out of my butt and take another look at what I'm trying to accomplish. In the past, I have not trusted "Co-Authoring" of documents in SP2010, but in this case I believe it will make life a lot more simple. With only one document for the WF to keep track of, it will greatly simplify what I'm trying to do. I can use multiple tabs within an Excel document, then create multiple tasks run in parallel. When all parallel tasks are completed, the workflow will move the act on the document as a whole. Should majorly simplify everything and still accomplish what I need to do. Here's to Co-Authoring and the hope it will work consistently. Thanks.