How to sum a range of numbers only if values pass "if statement"

[LegendaryPunk]

I have a spreadsheet that contains the following data:

If the person is a contract worker - displayed as "Y" or "N"
Hours spent on a project - number value

What I want to do is to have a forumla create a sum total of project hours, but only if the person has "Y" in their contract worker cell.

The purpose of this is to total the amount of hours contract workers will be spending on a project, and to have this value dynamically update if a person changes from a contract worker to an in-house worker.

So I need it create a sum value of cells B1:B5, but only if the cooresponding A cell value = "Y".

[daddylonglegs]

Try SUMIF, i.e.

=SUMIF(A1:A5,"Y",B1:B5)

[NBVC]

Try:

=Sumif(A1:A5,"Y",B1:B5)