An improvement as long as each main category has the exact same number and
sequence of sub-categories:

E1 = Legislative
F1 = Benefits

=INDEX(C1:C9,MATCH(E1,A1:A9,0)+MATCH(F1,A2:A4,0))

--
Biff
Microsoft Excel MVP


"T. Valko" wrote in message
...
Assuming there is just a single category of legislative:

................A......................C
1.....Legislative
2.....Salaries & Wages.....10
3.....Benefits....................44
4.....etc...........................27
5........................................
6.....Finance
7.....Salaries & Wages.....57
8.....Benefits....................22
9.....etc...........................99

Lookup Legislative Benefits

E1 = Legislative
F1 = Benefits

=INDEX(C9:INDEX(C1:C9,MATCH(E1,A1:A9,0)),MATCH(F1, A9:INDEX(A1:A9,MATCH(E1,A1:A9,0)),0))

Result = 44

--
Biff
Microsoft Excel MVP


"kraymond" wrote in message
...
Hi, I'm not exactly sure how to do this. I want to sum data in column c
if it
meets two conditions, both in column a. For example, I have budget data
in
column a; formatted as:

Legislative
Salaries & Wages
Benefits
etc.

Finance
Salaries & Wages
Benefits
etc.

The actual budget number is in column C. I want to summarize the data by
saying that if column a is both legislative and benefits, sum column c.

Is there a good way to do this? Thanks all!

Kassandra