How do I populate a field with the sum of a range of fields?

[Selazul]

I'm helping to edit an expense report sheet. I have drop down tabs to categorize the expenses, however I was instructed to find a way to have each grouping's sum total automatically repopulate in a category subtotals partition on the same sheet. I've looked at a variety of functions that only solve half of my problem, and I'm not quite sure how to link my solutions together.

Category	Total
Travel	$100
Marketing	$57
Travel	$90
Postage	$20
etc...	=
	Category Subtotals
Training
Travel	(Sum totals of group repopulated here)
Marketing

<tbody>
</tbody>

I tried a =SUMIF(A2:A4,Travel,B2:B4) ... but for obvious reasons that didn't work. Is it due to the drop down tab? I have to submit this in tomorrow morning to my team and I'm wracking my brain for solutions.

I've summarized it to this but have to admit my skillset fails me at this point

When X = A Then the total of Y goes to B

 

[RandyMorris]

I'm helping to edit an expense report sheet. I have drop down tabs to categorize the expenses, however I was instructed to find a way to have each grouping's sum total automatically repopulate in a category subtotals partition on the same sheet. I've looked at a variety of functions that only solve half of my problem, and I'm not quite sure how to link my solutions together.

Category	Total
Travel	$100
Marketing	$57
Travel	$90
Postage	$20
etc...	=
	Category Subtotals
Training
Travel	(Sum totals of group repopulated here)
Marketing

<tbody>
</tbody>

I tried a =SUMIF(A2:A4,Travel,B2:B4) ... but for obvious reasons that didn't work. Is it due to the drop down tab? I have to submit this in tomorrow morning to my team and I'm wracking my brain for solutions.

I've summarized it to this but have to admit my skillset fails me at this point

When X = A Then the total of Y goes to B

Travel needs to be "Travel", notice the quotations. You have to enter text within the quotation marks. Thus H2 should look like this:

=SUMIF($A$2:$A$6,"Travel",$B$2:$B$6)

It could also look like this =SUMIF($A$2:$A$6,"H1",$B$2:$B$6) if you want it to change even more dynamically. Note absolute reference so you can drag the formula.

 

[Selazul]

Doh! Of course! The formula felt like it made sense logically.. Thank you so much!