How to enter a name in one cell, and have it return their sales $.

[Jordan D.]

I've spent a lot of time trying to figure this out and I just can't get it.
Basically I have a spreadsheet with names on it and their corresponding sales
figures. Here is exactly what I have to do with those names and sales
figures:

I need an area of the spreadsheet where I can enter in an Employee name, and
have the spreadsheet quickly display the total sales for that person. For
example:

Enter Name Here: Dave Kitson
Total Sales: $229,793

Whenever a new name is entered, the total sales figure changes appropriately.

I've been trying all kinds of reference and lookup formulas but I just can't
get any to work. I don't even know for sure if I need to use a function for
this or not. If it helps I've got my employee names listed in cells A12:A15
and their corresponding sales figures are in cells B12:B15. Thanks so much
to anyone who can help me out with this.

 

[Jennifer Cali]

Hi Jordan - if I understand you correctly, you could input a vlookup in the
cell beside the cell that says "TOTAL SALES". It would lookup the name in the
cell above it (in this example, cell D1 where D1 = Dave Kitson b/c that is
what you entered into the cell) in column A and return the value tied to that
name in column B - in this case, $229,793.

Enter Name Here: Dave Kitson
Total Sales: =vlookup(D1,A:B,2,false)

 

[Jordan D.]

Oh man, I can't believe it! That was it! Thanks so much Jennifer, that was
exactly what I needed. I had even tried the vlookup formula before, but I
wasn't even close to entering the data properly.