boris wrote:
in theory, something along those lines. Problem is that
this assumes you have unique values to rank, whereas I am
looking for it to sum, within the array itself the amounts
of all the listed accounts BY account, then evaluate THAT
virtual list for the rank. Any more ideas on how to do
that?




There is no such assumption. If you want to apply a formula system
(instead of pivot tables), here is how to proceed...

1] Extract a list of distinct accounts and total their amounts.

2] Apply the formula system for extracting the Top 5 list, described in
the link Domenic quoted.

The first part also can be obtained with a formula system. What follows
shows how...

Let A3:B13 house the sample of accounts and corresponding amounts you
provided, including the labels Acct and Amount.

In C2 enter: 0

which is needed.

In C3 enter: Idx

which is just a label.

In C4 enter & copy down:

=IF((A4<"")*ISNA(MATCH(A4,$A$3:A3,0)),LOOKUP(9.99 999999999999E+307,$C$2:C3)+1,"")

In D2 enter:

=LOOKUP(9.99999999999999E+307,C4:C13)

In D3 enter: D-Acct

which is just a label.

In D4 enter & copy down:

=IF(ROW()-ROW(D$4)+1<=$D$2,LOOKUP(ROW()-ROW(D$4)+1,$C$4:$C$13,$A$4:$A$13),"")

In E3 enter: Total

which is just a label.

In E4 enter & copy down:

=SUMIF($A$4:$A$13,D4,$B$4:$B$13)

D3:E10 now houses the data to which you'd apply the formula system for
extracting a Top N list.