What SUMIFS Does and Why It Suits Transaction Lists
A bank statement imported into Google Sheets is a long list of rows: a date, a description and an amount. To see how much went on groceries versus transport, you add a category label to each row and then add up the amounts that share a label. SUMIFS is the function Google documents for exactly this kind of conditional total.
Google's function reference gives the syntax as SUMIFS(sum_range, criteria_range1, criterion1, [criteria_range2, criterion2, ...]). The sum_range is the range to be added up, criteria_range1 is the range that is checked against criterion1, and any further range and criterion pairs are optional. A row is added to the total only when it meets all of the criteria you supply.
Set Up the Sheet
Put the transactions in columns A to C, with a header row in row 1. Column A holds the date, column B holds a category label that you type or paste yourself, and column C holds the amount. The category column is something you add; the statement itself does not provide it. The example below uses made-up merchants and amounts, entered in rows 2 to 9.
Here is the sample data, shown as date, category and amount:
2026-09-02 Groceries 42.10 (Fresh Basket Market)
2026-09-03 Transport 18.50 (Metro Ride)
2026-09-05 Groceries 27.90 (Corner Greens)
2026-09-07 Entertainment 24.00 (Bright Cinema)
2026-09-09 Transport 18.50 (Metro Ride)
2026-09-12 Groceries 63.25 (Fresh Basket Market)
2026-09-15 Entertainment 11.99 (Sunny Streaming)
2026-09-18 Groceries 15.75 (Corner Greens)Keep the category spelling consistent. A criterion of "Groceries" is an exact text match in the examples Google gives, so a row labelled differently will not be included in that total.
Total One Category
To total the Groceries rows, use the amount range as sum_range, the category range as criteria_range1, and the label as the criterion:
=SUMIFS(C2:C9, B2:B9, "Groceries")The four Groceries rows are 42.10, 27.90, 63.25 and 15.75, so the result is 149.00. Changing the label gives the other categories: "Transport" returns 37.00 (18.50 plus 18.50) and "Entertainment" returns 35.99 (24.00 plus 11.99). The three category totals add up to 221.99, which equals the sum of all eight amounts, a quick check that no row was left without a label.
A tidy way to build a summary is to list each category name in its own cell, such as E2, E3 and E4, and point the criterion at that cell instead of typing the text, for example =SUMIFS(C2:C9, B2:B9, E2). Google's own examples use quoted text and comparison strings as criteria, so test the cell-reference form on your own data before relying on it.
Add a Second Condition
Because further range and criterion pairs are allowed, you can narrow a total. Google's examples show comparison criteria written as text, such as ">20" and "<30". Combining a category with a threshold looks like this:
=SUMIFS(C2:C9, B2:B9, "Groceries", C2:C9, ">20")This adds only the Groceries rows with an amount above 20: 42.10, 27.90 and 63.25, giving 133.25. The 15.75 row is left out because it fails the second condition.
One limit to be aware of: Google notes that returning a sum across multiple columns is not supported. SUMIFS adds up one sum_range, so if you keep debits and credits in separate columns, write one SUMIFS per column.
Getting the Data Into the Sheet First
SUMIFS can only add up amounts that are stored as numbers in clean rows. If your transactions are still locked inside a PDF statement, converting them to a spreadsheet or CSV first removes the retyping. PDFtoRow converts bank statement PDFs to Excel or CSV and shows a free preview of the first 10 rows, so you can check the layout before you build your category summary.
Convert Bank Statement PDFs Cleanly with PDFtoRow
Tired of fixing broken columns, corrupted dates, and numbers stored as text? PDFtoRow extracts transaction tables directly from digital PDF vector layers, preserving check numbers and outputting true numeric amounts. Statements up to 5 pages are free once per email every 24 hours. Check the 10-row preview before you download.
Frequently Asked Questions
SUMIFS(sum_range, criteria_range1, criterion1, [criteria_range2, criterion2, ...]). The sum_range is what gets added, and a row is included only when it meets all of the criteria.
Google's documentation states that returning a sum across multiple columns is not supported. Use one SUMIFS per column and add the results.
Write the comparison as text, for example ">20". Google's examples use ">20" and "<30" in this way, and you can pair a comparison with a category in the same formula.
Primary Evidence & Official References
- SUMIFS function - Google Docs Editors Help — support.google.com (Verified 2026-10-29). Official source documentation →