I'm kindof lost - I am able to do a vlookup and get the required data but now
I think that I would like to add another vlookup formula and multiply to get
the correct results.

I need to find current commission rates

So I have my first table Name, Department, Commission Rate
d5 = Smith, e5 = appliances, f5 = 5%
d6 = Doe, e6 = furniture, f6 = 3.5%
d7 = Johnson, e7 = housewares, f7 = 2.5%......

I have another area where I insert the results
A5 Label - Salesman - and I would insert Employee Name in cell b5
Cell A6 would be Label total sales - B6 is where I enter the amount of total
for employee sales
B7 would be where I would enter the Vlookup to insert the department - this
works fine
=VLOOKUP(B5|$D$5:$F$17|2|FALSE)

Now I would like cell b8 to determine the amount due to the employee based
on on the amount of employee total sales - b6 and multiply by the amount in
the corresponding commission rate.

Hope this makes sense

Thanks in advance!