V Lookup not reading the correct data (skips the row and doesn't match)

[pedexe90]

Hello everyone,

So I thought I would try to share this problem with you, this forum has been very helpful to me.

So I have a worksheet of data with names and salaries for each month (I have reduced the number of months for this purpose). I am building a separate worksheet to analyse those names against there monthly salaries. I have included a copy of the spreadsheet in this OneDrive link ([url]https://1drv.ms/x/s!AgQdYsSdg735crYwBr016fE5WlU)[/URL]

So on the first column I am using an index formula to extract all unique names from the stacked up column as employees might join and leave from month to month. Next, I am using the VLookup to match names and month and extract corresponding salaries.

This works fine until the VLookup finds a name that is not matching in that particular month (someone left or joined) and just populates the cell with the next name's value. (Highlighted)

I would be very grateful if someone could please help with this.

Many thanks.

 

[steve the fish]

Yeah you cant do what you are doing. You dont have your names lined up in the data so you are searching in the first month for your name then returning whatever is in the next few columns for that row regardless of the name for that particular month.

 

[pedexe90]

Thanks Steve.

Do you have any suggestions?

 

[steve the fish]

Its a bit complicated because of how you have this set out but this could work:

=INDEX('PAYROLL_FT_SEPT17-MAY18'!$B$1:$I$1000,MATCH($A5,INDEX('PAYROLL_FT_SEPT17-MAY18'!$B$1:$I$1000,,MATCH(B$1,'PAYROLL_FT_SEPT17-MAY18'!$B$1:$I$1,0)-1),0),MATCH(B$1,'PAYROLL_FT_SEPT17-MAY18'!$B$1:$I$1,0))

 

[pedexe90]

Well I think it did. Fantastic!!! Wish I could just look at a problem in excel and solve it like that.

 

[steve the fish]

It gets easier the more you use it. Glad it worked out. You would probably be better storing your data 'flat' so the date becomes part of each line rather than tabular. It would be easier to work with such as:

Name	Pay	Date
AB06A	6,403.42	Sep-17
AB06A	6,404.42	Oct-17
AB06A	6,405.42	Nov-17

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