Hi, Andy-
Here's how I do it, assuming all your text labels are in column A and
the numbers to be summed are in column B. I develop a grand total for
all items at the bottom of column B: call it cell B100. Under that I
list each item that appears in column A: call it cell A103 to A108.
The formula in cell B103 is
=SUMIF($A$1:$A$99,A103,$B$1:$B$99)
....which you can copy down through B108. In cell B109, develop a sum
of the individual totals and compare it to the total in B100 as a
checksum to make sure the list in A103:A108 is comprehensive.