SUMIF Another Sheet

What this does

SUMIF adds numbers conditionally: it checks each cell in range against one criterion and, for every row that passes, adds the matching cell from sum_range. The criterion can be exact text, a number, a comparison like ">100", or a wildcard pattern. If you leave off sum_range, SUMIF adds the cells in range itself — handy when the column you test is also the column you total. Keep the inputs visible and clearly labelled and the whole thing stays auditable — anyone who opens the file later, including you, can see at a glance exactly what feeds the result and change one assumption without hunting through the formula. The difference between a quick fix and a sheet you can trust is the extra minute you spend validating “sumif another sheet”. Start on a copy or a tiny sample, keep the affected sheet visible, and compare the result with the tool above before you touch the real workbook. When a formula is involved, keep the inputs labelled beside it, reference cells instead of typing values, and apply number formatting only after the result checks out. The point is a calculation you can defend to a CFO or an auditor, but the practical win is that someone else can open the file and understand what happened without asking you.

A worked example

Regions are in A2:A100 and sales in B2:B100. To total only the West sales: =SUMIF(A2:A100, "West", B2:B100). It checks each region, and wherever it equals "West" it adds the matching sales figure, returning say 48200. To sum only sales above 1000 directly, test the number column itself: =SUMIF(B2:B100, ">1000"). SUMIF is the everyday tool for one-condition totals — sales by region, expenses by category, hours by project — without filtering or building a pivot table. A practical tip before you scale it up: build it once on a small block of test data, confirm the number against the tool on this page, and only then point it at your real sheet. That one habit catches almost every mistake while it is still cheap to fix, long before a wrong figure reaches a report or a colleague.

In Google Sheets

If you are in Google Sheets rather than Excel, the good news is that the formula shown here is identical and the workflow barely changes — menus sit across the top instead of in a ribbon, and a few function names differ slightly, but anything you build here moves across with little or no rework. Keep this page bookmarked for the next time the same question comes up. Better still, rebuild the example once in your own sheet — doing it yourself, with the tool above to check against, is what turns a copied formula into a technique you own. Treat “sumif another sheet” as a small building block rather than a chore. Once the inputs sit in their own cells and the formula reads from them, the same setup answers a dozen related questions with a tweak, and Excel keeps every dependent figure current as the data changes. The tool above is there so you can rehearse and verify before committing anything to a real workbook; the steps and worked example are there so the logic sticks. Get it right once and it stops costing you time — it starts saving it, every time the question comes back around.

Common mistakes

• Giving range and sum_range different heights, so rows misalign and the wrong cells are added.
• Forgetting the quotes around a comparison — ">100" must be a quoted text string, not >100.
• Reaching for SUMIF when you have two or more conditions; that needs SUMIFS, which takes multiple criteria pairs.

Frequently asked questions