Auto-Populate Data in Cells Based on Category Totals

Sorry, I don't think I'm explaining it correctly! 🙂 You're being very helpful but without being able to attach a screenshot I don't think I'm making great sense here. I know how to sort by date, but I don't understand the SUMIF function completely as it relates to me having to select a range. Let me try again! It might be as simple as me needing to set this up differently, but I don't see how.

Manually-Entered Data Columns
So, I have Columns A-G filled with data. The column headers include information about the date, the total amount of the invoice, the company, the necessary accounting information, and the billing code, (or category) among other things. Column A contains the date, and Column B contains the amount. Column G contains the billing code. I manually enter this information in the order it's received from the companies billing me, which means they're automatically in order by their date, with the newest at the bottom. That means that Column G, which contains the billing code, really varies quite a bit. There could be a billing code for Advertising that's the same 5 times in a row, because I have five invoices for Advertising that I received five times in a row. Then one day I'll get an invoice for Web Development, or Social Media, let's say. That billing code is different. So there will be five Advertising billing codes, followed with one Social Media billing code and then two Web Development billing codes. Then maybe two more Advertising invoices, followed by another Social Media billing code invoice, but there will never be a situation where there are a consistent set of billing codes not broken up by others. I hope that makes sense. Plus, information is always being added, so I would have to constantly re-select a range (if I understand the SUMIF function correctly, which I may not) every time I am adding a new invoice to the data columns.

Category Columns
Now, Columns J-M have four categories labeled on them as headers, which are the billing codes (one related to advertising, one social media for example, etc.). These are the columns I'd want to contain the auto-populated data. So under Column J, in the cell directly below the category label, I'd want to have Excel auto-populate the total amount of money we've spent on any of these categories, with the information being taken from the Manually-Entered Data Columns. It sounds like the SUMIF function makes sense here, but I'm not understanding how I'd use it if I have to select a range. I am constantly adding to this spreadsheet manually, and the column that contains the billing codes varies wildly. There are several different ranges of the same billing code. I have a total of 31 invoices I've entered since January 3, 2023 and expect to more than double this before the end of the year.

I'd like to see the total amount spent per category updated in real time, each time I add a new invoice. It is quite possible that this isn't a function I suppose, but I would be shocked if that's true!

It is also quite possible that your answer with SUMIF is correct! Am I not understanding the SUMIF function properly? I am not sure what the range I need to select is. This is what Excel prompts me to include when I type =SUMIF: (range, criteria, [sum_range]). I hope that my additional and more detailed information helps.

Thanks for assisting. 🙂