Google Sheets – SPLIT Function with OR Statement

That's because the getRange method only accepts a string as a range. Your problem can be resolved by using just plain JavaScript:

Code

function customSum(range) {
  var sum=0;  
  for(var i=0, iLen=range.length; i<iLen; i++) {
    for(var j=0, jLen=range[0].length; j<jLen; j++) {
      sum += range[i][j];
    }
  }  
  return sum;
}

Example

I've created an example file for you: Custom Sum

Remark

Please note the difference between the two pieces of code. No API calls are used. The reference you use (cells) has more than one column !! If you want that, then you need to take that into account as well. Also note that changes in the range will be calculated immediately.

You can use a quite pragmatic approach to reach your goal.

Formula

=ARRAYFORMULA(
   SPLIT(                        // string
     REGEXREPLACE(
       A1:A4,                    // text
       "[users,<=>compani]",     // regular_expression
       ""                        // replacement
     ),                          
   " ")                          // delimiter
 )

copy/paste
=ARRAYFORMULA(SPLIT(REGEXREPLACE(A1:A4, "[users,<=>compani]",""), " "))

Screenshot

Explained

The regular_expression is cleaning up the string, in preparation for the SPLIT. The replacement is simply set to contain an empty string. The result, yields a string that contains one or two values, separated by a white space. The delimiter in the SPLIT is set accordingly and all is put into an ARRAYFORMULA.