Sumproduct to get a count of dates
 

I have two columns. One has dates and is formatted as a Date column. The
other, even though it is formatted as a Date column, is a lot more
complicated. It as a formula that prepoulates it with three variety of
acronymns like ABC, LMN, XYZ. And based on these strings, the user can input
either A, B, C or a Date.

I am trying to compile a dashbaord that is supposed to summarize a count of
any of these entries (in the 2nd Column) entered by the date (in the 1st
column).

While
=SUMPRODUCT(--(Data!$A$5:$A$800<=Dashboard!B$2),--(Data!$A$5:$A$800<""),--(Data!$G$5:$G$800="ABC"))
works for all the strings, I could not get it to work for the dates.

I used a variety of options and then had to resort to a seprate countif
which I know can lead to other issues the way my excel is set up.

Thanks for your help
Anurag