Website database advise

[Betty]

I know what I want to do - or hire someone to do - but I'm not sure how to go about it.

I want a website that someone can log into via username and password and view how many points they have.

On the backend, I want a database that I can have an employee log into weekly and update how many points someone has.

Is that a pretty straight forward thing? Through my hosting I have access to SQL and PHP databases but haven't worked with either of those. I also see perl, ruby and php pear as software/services available.

The guy that was referred to me through a coworker is trying to sell me on some monthly plan based in loyalty/gift cards that I'm not really going for - although after seeing a demo later this week that may change if they can make it do what I want.

I would love to be able to put a label on this and then hire someone who does THAT and not someone who's trying to fit our idea into whatever vendor they are doing business with at the moment.

In my mind this is a pretty simply and straightforward thing - but havent experience in coding of that sort I have no real idea. (I design websites using Dreamweaver and photoshop and know the basics of html but would have a hard time coding with notepad.)

Any suggestions? Points in the right direct? Referrals to your great guy/gal that does this and has it all set up to install and go?

Thanks for your egg-heady help.