I work in an IT issue processing team, I want to do a report that has four
sections.

The top section always has the same height and width, and displays summed
values from the other three sections. These sums are broken down by issue
category.

The second section shows the detail of activity for the current day--issues
opened today and outstanding from prior days.

The third section shows issues that have been closed today

The fourth section shows issues that have been closed from the beginning of
the current week.

All the sections have the same width, but obviously there will be different
numbers of rows for sections 2, 3, and 4. By using hidden columns and the
IF function, I can create a tally for each detail row that tells what
category the issue should be counted under, but how do I handle the fact that
there are different numbers of rows in each section from day to day?

unfortunately the best suggestions will depend on how you have your data
formatted.
the pivot table or sumif()s if there is a good identifier in each line to
indicate each section
A macro might be needed to locate the spaces between the sections or to
locate the header line in each section

"Pithecanthropus" wrote:

I work in an IT issue processing team, I want to do a report that has four
sections.

The top section always has the same height and width, and displays summed
values from the other three sections. These sums are broken down by issue
category.

The second section shows the detail of activity for the current day--issues
opened today and outstanding from prior days.

The third section shows issues that have been closed today

The fourth section shows issues that have been closed from the beginning of
the current week.

All the sections have the same width, but obviously there will be different
numbers of rows for sections 2, 3, and 4. By using hidden columns and the
IF function, I can create a tally for each detail row that tells what
category the issue should be counted under, but how do I handle the fact that
there are different numbers of rows in each section from day to day?