With data similar to this in columns A and B:
contractor 1 8/17/2008
contractor 2 8/12/2008
contractor 3 8/7/2008
contractor 1 8/2/2008
contractor 2 7/28/2008
contractor 3 7/23/2008
contractor 1 7/18/2008
contractor 2 7/13/2008
contractor 3 7/8/2008
contractor 1 7/3/2008
contractor 2 6/28/2008
contractor 3 6/23/2008

If you want an individual count for each contractor, the easiest way is to
create a separate table with a list of contractors (the sample was entered in
columns E and F) and use the following formula to the right of the contractor
name to count dates before 7/30/2008.
=SUMPRODUCT(($A$2:$A$19=E2)*($B$2:$B$19<=DATE(2008 ,7,31)))
You can enter for the first contractor and then copy down for additional.
The results from the above table would be:
contractor 1 2
contractor 2 3
contractor 3 3



"Dan Soleau" wrote:

I have two columns. One contains general contractor names the other contains
dates from current until december of 2008. I want to create an updating
formula to count how many dates are less than or equal too 7/31/08 for each
contractor.