Formula Help

[bjsavoy]

Can someone help me with my formula, or suggest an easier way? I'm trying to get all of the "Period End" dates to fall within a specific "Effective Date" using a formula (=IF(LEFT(H5,1)>=7,"08/17/2016","01/17/2017").
For Period End dates between July and December, the Effective Date should be 08/17/2016. For those that fall between January and June, the Effective Date should be 01/17/2017. I think there is something wrong with the formatting of the dates, because all of the formula results are "True" and giving me Effective Dates of 08/17/2017, even for those whose first digit is less than 7. The current formatting is General.

[TABLE="width: 361"]
<colgroup><col><col><col></colgroup><tbody>[TR]
[TD]Effective Date
[/TD]
[TD]Employment Status[/TD]
[TD]Period End[/TD]
[/TR]
[TR]
[TD]08/17/2016[/TD]
[TD]Active[/TD]
[TD]09/15/2016[/TD]
[/TR]
[TR]
[TD]08/17/2016[/TD]
[TD]Active[/TD]
[TD]09/30/2016[/TD]
[/TR]
[TR]
[TD]08/17/2016[/TD]
[TD]Active
[/TD]
[TD]10/15/2016[/TD]
[/TR]
[TR]
[TD]08/17/2016[/TD]
[TD]Active[/TD]
[TD]10/31/2016[/TD]
[/TR]
[TR]
[TD]08/17/2016[/TD]
[TD]Active[/TD]
[TD]11/15/2016[/TD]
[/TR]
[TR]
[TD]08/17/2016[/TD]
[TD]Active[/TD]
[TD]11/30/2016[/TD]
[/TR]
[TR]
[TD]08/17/2016[/TD]
[TD]Active[/TD]
[TD]01/31/2017[/TD]
[/TR]
[TR]
[TD]08/17/2016[/TD]
[TD]Active[/TD]
[TD]02/15/2017[/TD]
[/TR]
[TR]
[TD]08/17/2016[/TD]
[TD]Active[/TD]
[TD]02/28/2017[/TD]
[/TR]
[TR]
[TD]08/17/2016[/TD]
[TD]Active[/TD]
[TD]03/15/2017[/TD]
[/TR]
</tbody>[/TABLE]

I thank you in advance for your help.

B.J.

 

[bjsavoy]

I changed the formula to =IF(LEFT(J5,2)>=7,"08/17/2016","01/17/2017") for the first 2 digits in the Period End column and it still doesn't work.

 

[Marcelo Branco]

Maybe this...
=IF(MONTH(J5)>=7,"08/17/2016","01/17/2017")

M.