VLOOKUP
The classic lookup — used well.
Why planners need it
Still everywhere in shared workbooks. Knowing its traps (and always using exact match) keeps inherited models from breaking.
Syntax
=VLOOKUP(key, table, column_number, FALSE)
Worked example
Return the 3rd column (AHT) for a queue:
=VLOOKUP("Sales", A:C, 3, FALSE) → 240. The FALSE is essential — it forces an exact match.
Watch out: It can only look right of the key, and the column number is positional — inserting a column silently breaks it. Prefer INDEX+MATCH or XLOOKUP for durable models.