Multiple criteria lookup counting

Hey guys,

I am not very good with the formula side of excel, but I am trying to learn. I have been using the countif formula for a lot of my data counting which has worked so far. Here is my question. I am trying to count by quarters for the year. We have a field that we use that has the date and then we add another number, for example, 08131402 would mean we are on the second order for the day. I have another 5 columns on the same sheet that we use that has a letter and a number, for example T54. I would like it to count lets say the first quarter which is Jan through March how many times T54. Both fields are text field and when I tried dcounta I was getting an error message, and when I tried countifs I was getting an error. How would I go about doing this. If you need more explanation, please ask.

Thanks in advance.

Joe