Making excel template for profit margins

Hi, currently at my work place I was tasked with learning excel and to make template that could calculate our profit margins by entering in product codes, our cost, and their price. Now the problem is that I have little experience with excel, I can do a basic worksheet but I don't know how to use things like Vlookup for excel which is a function i expect i will need to use. I was wondering if anyone could help me get off on the right foot with making this template. What are some functions I need to learn how to use? How would i get this all in a template? Are there good programs that can do this already? Thanks in advanced!

-PrivateLucky

edit: edit the title b/c it was not specific enough