Absolute beginner needs help with payroll spreadsheet

Welcome to the forum.

There are instructions at the top of the page explaining how to attach your sample workbook.

A good sample workbook has just 10-20 rows of representative data that has been desensitised. It also has expected results mocked up, relevant cells highlighted and a few explanatory notes.

Administrative Note:

Members will tailor the solutions they offer to the version (NOT release number) of Office (Excel, NOT Windows) that you have. Please check that your forum profile is up-to-date in this respect. If you aren't sure, in Excel go to File | Account and report what it says below the MS logo at the top of that page. If your version is for Mac, please also state this. Thanks.

Created Named ranges : Name and Name_Band (See Formulas>>Named Ranges)

in B2

Data>>Data Validation>>LIst >>"=Name"(without quotes)

in C2

=VLOOKUP($B2,Name_Band,2,0)

UPDATE: you can add the hourly rate in column C of "Name" and do another VLOOKUP to get the data)

Update:

See attached with example of VLOOKUP for Hourly Rate with named range "Pay_Rates"

Another option is to have a separate Band/Rate table so you have a Name/Band table and a Band/Rate table which gives you greater flexibility.

See yellow highlighted for example of the latter.

If that takes care of your original question, please select Thread Tools from the menu link above and mark this thread as SOLVED.

Also, if you have not already done so, you may not be aware that you can thank those who have helped you by clicking the small star icon (* Add Reputation) located in the lower left corner of the post in which the help was given. By doing so you can add to the reputation(s) of all those who offered help.