Could part of the confusion be that the date 6/31/08 is not valid?
There are only 30 days in that month...
I have had issues with that mistake.

"T. Valko" wrote:

It would be easier if you added a column to each sheet and did the
comparison in that column then base the formatting on the result in that
column.

This is on sheet1 in the range A2:C4 -

6/9/08 Sale 2000
6/15/08 Purch -1000
6/4/08 Transf -500

This is on sheet2 in the range A2:D5 -

001 6/9/08 CAN 2000
002 6/15/08 US -1000
003 6/4/08 EUR -500
004 6/31/08 US 2000

Enter this array formula** on sheet1 in cell E2:

=IF(COUNTA(A2:C2),COUNT(MATCH(A2&"*"&C2,Sheet2!B$2 :B$5&"*"&Sheet2!D$2:D$5,0)),"")

Copy down as needed.

Enter this array formula** on sheet2 in cell E2:

=IF(COUNTA(A2:D2),COUNT(MATCH(B2&"*"&D2,Sheet1!A$2 :A$5&"*"&Sheet1!C$2:C$5,0)),"")

Copy down as needed.

Where there are matches between sheets the formulas will return a 1 on their
respective sheets.

Now you can base your conditional formatting on these cells containing a 1.

Post back if you need help on how to apply the formatting.

** array formulas need to be entered using the key combination of
CTRL,SHIFT,ENTER (not just ENTER)


--
Biff
Microsoft Excel MVP


"ACCAguy" wrote in message
...
Hello All:

My problem is that I have 2 worksheets that I need to compare and
highlight
the items that are similiar based on 2 criterion. In essence it is a
reconciliation of a bank account so I need to know the items that are
reconciling items plus those that might be on the bank's statement but not
in
the cash book or vice versa so I can update the cash book and list the
reconciling items.

Here is a simplified version of the different worksheets:


Cash book

A B C
1 6/9/08 Sale 2000
2 6/15/08 Purch -1000
3 6/4/08 Transf -500

Bank Statement

A B C D
1 001 6/9/08 CAN 2000
2 002 6/15/08 US -1000
3 003 6/4/08 EUR -500
4 004 6/31/08 US 2000

In this example I would like to match columns A & C in the cash book with
B
& D in the bank statement and highlight all similiar items thus leaving
the
4th row in the bank statement unhighlighted. I would appreciate any
suggestions. Please keep in mind that I am only an average excel user.
Thanks
in advance.




--
ACCAguy