Locating Final Cell In a SUMIF Statement

Question

I've found out how to locate the final cell in a column with the OFFSET function and how to locate the one right before it as well.
=OFFSET(A1, COUNT(A)-1, 0)
What I'm trying to do is a little bit more complicated. I have 3 columns: A (Date), B (Category), and C (Amount). Each column starts at Row 3 because of headers. At the very bottom I have a Total Row. Right now I am having trouble tweaking the function to get the last cell at the bottom of the column before the Total row to be referenced. That is my first problem.
The more complicated problem is the SUMIF function. What I would like to happen is that since I am looking for a specific category with a specific amount out of each column and that the columns are changing, a formula or different method that will allow me to change the size of the columns without having to modify the SUMIF statement. I think it would look something like this:
=SUMIF(A3:OFFSET(A3, COUNT($A)-2, 0), "=Category", C3:OFFSET(C3, COUNT($C)-2, 0)
However, I am getting back a syntax error every time I try to something of this nature. Any help on solving this problem or suggesting and alternative solution would be greatly appreciated. Thanks.
Edit 01: At the moment I am unable to post a screenshot of what I mean, but hopefully I'll be able to get one up later this afternoon.

Answer 1

S-P,
1. You're making this more complicated than it needs to be. 2. There's an obvious missing right parenthesis in your expression, and I think some other errors but it's not productive to run them down.
The very simple expression: =SUMIF(A, "categoryName", C) should do the job. Only the values in C that have corresponding "categoryName" in A will be summed. You don't have to be so specific about the range.
Jerry