Interesting one this ..

SUMIF #1
=sumif($a:$a,"OtherBaseCost",as:as)
works perfectly.

SUMIF #2
=sumif($a:$a,"<<OtherBaseCost",as:as)
doesn't.

In Col A at which the sumif is looking, there are cells that are naturally
empty and cells that contain a formula similar to:
=if(a5="BaseCost",a5,"")
SUMIF #2 rightly ignores the naturally empty ones but sums the row with the
formula irrespective of the result! Any ideas?

Best regards!
Robert