Matt, if you're using a 1-tiered approach in VFP you're better off using filtered datasets for each instance. XML would add value if you use a tiered approach or if you create a single process to do the actual pasting, in which case you could pass instructions to that process using xml.

If you're looking at NET in 2008, many gurus would advocate typed datasets to move data to a SP that does the actual work or you might consider Linq to SQL which would make this sort of task very easy- except that its change tracking is lost if you use a tiered approach and MS has damned it with faint praise/promises as it did with VFP. Various gurus have been advocating the EF for some time but in 2008 you may find it somewhat over-involved for this sort of task.