The question from /u/FlakyLack103 is one we see constantly in spreadsheet forums, and it deserves a straightforward answer: yes, this is not only possible but should be a standard part of how you build any cost sheet. You have costs in one column and a code in the next that routes each line to either maintenance or operations. The solution is not a complex macro or a pivot table you will need to refresh manually. It is a simple SUMIF formula, and once you see it, you will wonder why you ever tolerated manual sorting or color-coded subtotals.
The practical implication is that you stop being the person who maintains a spreadsheet and start being the person who designs one. With a formula that looks at your unique code column and sums only the matching costs, your grand total at the bottom becomes two totals, each updating the moment you enter a new line. No more copying and pasting sections, no more accidental omissions, no more second-guessing whether the numbers agree with your finance team. The formula does the thinking, and you get to spend that saved time on the actual work of managing maintenance and operations, not reconciling rows.
What is worth noting here is that this is not a request for advanced analytics or a dashboard with interactive filters. This is the bread-and-butter of spreadsheet literacy, and yet it trips up more people than it should. The fact that this question feels worth asking is a sign of how little training most users receive on the tools they rely on daily. We would argue that is a failure of the software industry, not the user. Spreadsheets have had conditional summing capabilities for decades, but the interface has never made these functions feel approachable to someone who just wants a bottom line.
If you are stuck on this problem, stop feeling like you need to learn a new system. Learn one formula, and you will never look at your cost sheet the same way again. The next time you add a row for a repair or an operational expense, the totals will move on their own, and that is the kind of quiet empowerment that makes spreadsheets feel less like a chore and more like a tool that actually respects your time. Start with SUMIF, test it on a few rows, and then build the habit of letting your formulas do the categorizing for you.