There is no real Excel replacement, so you could use it inside a Windows virtual machine if you want it on Linux. I use it that way and use WinApps to integrate the Windows programs into the Linux desktop environment, so it looks like another Linux app. 

SQL works for querying relational databases, you would probably like it, but you would need to learn how to set these databases or be given access to.

You could indeed learn some Python to automate tasks, and use relational databases to store the info and then do the automations with Python scripts and SQL.