Why isn't my MATCH function working?

[DashboardNovice]

In the attached workbook, I am working in cell I3. I am using the MATCH function with cell H3 as the lookup value. I want to lookup in column P, and find the corresponding pay period in column N which would be the value in N8 in this example.

The MATCH would return 3, then I would add 1 and put the MATCH inside of an OFFSET function using N4 as a reference for the OFFSET to start at.

But I can't get the MATCH function to work first. I have a custom date format on all the dates using a period as a separator. I tried 1,0 and -1 as the third argument in the MATCH function and nothing is working.

I can't think of any other possibilities. Any ideas?

 

[Hui]

Change I2: to =MATCH(H2,$P$5:$P$18,1)
It returns 10 for me as it should

Ultimately you want:
=OFFSET(N$4,MATCH(H2,$P$5:$P$18,1)+1,0)

 

[DashboardNovice]

Change I2: to =MATCH(H2,$P$5:$P$18,1)
It returns 10 for me as it should
quote]

I entered this formula into I2 and I'm still getting a #N/A error, except I changed column P to R. Using column P didn't work. I think it's because P is seen as one big text value?

So when I used column R, instead of getting 10, I got 01.10.1900. So it's as if I am somewhat close in that I got the 10th of January. Any ideas what might have gone wrong?

 

[Hui]

Please see attached file: