Conditional Formatting not working on cell that has formula

Good day,

I'm seeking for immediate assistance with the conditional formatting in excel...

What I'm trying to do is to put a conditional formatting on a cell that has formula. For example, the cell AH17 which is currently shaded in light blue that contains formula:
=IF(COUNTIFS($AR$5:$AR$24,"<"&$AF17,$AS$5:$AS$24,">"&$AE17)=0,"",COUNTIFS($AR$5:$AR$24,"<"&$AF17,$AS$5:$AS$24,">"&$AE17)
should turn to white if it is equal to or greater than the cell N17.

Example: I have tried to use this formula (=AH17>=N17) in cell AH17 using the new rule in conditional formatting but it's automatically turns to white.

Please note that the cells AH5 to AH52 is depending on the cells AR5 to AS 24...

I have attached the file that I'm currently working for reference. Please advise. Thank you very much in advanced.

Welcome to the forum.
For cell AH17 only: 'Conditional Formatting' → 'New Rule' → 'Format only cells that contain'.
In the Rule Description, choose 'Cell Value' 'greater than or equal to' and enter '=N17'.

Assuming you actually want this to apply to the whole column, first select the range AH5:AH52, then do the C.F. with '=N5'

Hope that helps.

Currently you have two formulas applied to $AG$5:$AM$52
1) =M5>=1, and
2) =W5>=198

Which should be:
1) =$M5>=1, and
2) =$W5>=198
if you are intending to compare values only in columns M and W. Actually, they should be combined into one formula

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I don't see why you need to WHITE FILL any cell, that should be the default (?). However, it would be:

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I'm not sure about your logic for the CF formula. In AR5:AS5 , you have 10:00/10:30 AM which corresponds to row 17 in columns X and AH, but in OT Req's table, row 10:00 is in row 25 vs 17 (6:00 AM).

Using INDEX and matching the weekday and start time:
=AND(INDEX(Commitment,MATCH($AR5,CommitmentTime),MATCH(AR$3,CommitmentDay))>INDEX(OvertimeReqs,MATCH($AR5,OTTime),
MATCH(AR$3,OvertimeDays)),INDEX(SeatingIntervals,MATCH($AR5,SeatingTime),MATCH(AR$3,SeatingDay))>=198).

However the merged cells in AP3:BC3 had to be unmerged.
Named Ranges defined:
Commitment ='OT Commitment'!$AG$5:$AM$52
CommitmentDay ='OT Commitment'!$AG$4:$AM$4
CommitmentTime ='OT Commitment'!$AE$5:$AE$52
OTTime ='OT Commitment'!$L$5:$L$52
OvertimeDays ='OT Commitment'!$M$4:$S$4
OvertimeReqs ='OT Commitment'!$M$5:$S$52
SeatingDay ='OT Commitment'!$W$4:$AC$4
SeatingIntervals ='OT Commitment'!$W$5:$AC$52
SeatingTime ='OT Commitment'!$U$5:$U$52