I am trying to use a sumif and countif formula in conjuction with dates but
Excel (2003) will only recognize my formulas when I hard-code the date as
opposed to linking to a cell that contains the date. For some reason, when I
put the formula pointing to a cell (containing a date) - it returns 0, but
when I actually type in the date, I get a real number. Can Anyone help
please? Thanks very much


EX)

I am doing a range (2009), and this formula is returning the proper value:
"=SUMIF(Sheet1!$R$5:$R$223,"=1/1/2009",Sheet1!M5:M224)-SUMIF(Sheet1!$R$5:$R$223,"12/31/2009",Sheet1!M5:M224)"

However, for the same exact date range, this formula which attempts to point
to cells, does not work: "
=SUMIF(Sheet1!$R$5:$R$223,"A9",Sheet1!M5:M224)-SUMIF(Sheet1!$R$5:$R$223,"B9",Sheet1!M5:M224)

Any help is seriously appreciated