Conditional formatting with dates and colours

Andy,

I have attached your sample sheet with the conditional formatting set up, I think it does what you are after. You can only conditional format on the value in the cell you are working on, not refer to other cells. The $ symbol is used to make a cell reference "Absolute" ie you can copy the reference to location and it will still point to the same cell reference as apposed to being relative where the cell reference will change when you copy it. 

Enter a value in cell A1, type =A1 in cell B1 then drag B1 to B2 and the formula will be =A2. Put a $ in =A$1 and drag it down and the formula will be A1 because you made the row reference (1) absolute.

Hope this all helps,

Rich