formatting cells with quarters based on date ranges

You need to use conditional formatting.

1. HOME > STYLES > CONDITIONAL FORMATTING > NEW RULE
2. Select the "Use a formula to determine which cells to format"
3. This the formula I used "=AND($Z17>$O$2,$Z17<$P$2)"

I created a date because you didn't give one and I used the color green so you could see what I did. To look at the formatting, go to "Conditional Formatting" and click on "Manage Rules". It will show my work. You can do this for the other cells where you need the formatting.

example.xlsx

If you can provide the dates that will be compared to the date ranges you specified then I can help, otherwise you will have to input yourself.

It was late when I sent my reply and I've dramatically improved on my original post. A quick question I have for you is what type of reporting period does your company use? A normal calendar year or fiscal year? I say this because October is in Q4 in a normal calendar year and therefore should be gray in Q3 2013 (I'm assuming). Here is my file with some notes. The original data is in the "example" sheet and "Sheet1" is my work.

example.xlsx

I already added the conditional formatting. The formulas that gave "White" or "Grey" was showing you what I did. Follow these steps to see the formatting:

1. Click in cell "Z2"
2. on the "Home" tab in the "Styles" section click "Conditional Formatting"
3. Click "Manage Rules"
4. Double click on one of the rules to show the formula.