SQL sum with condition

Try this instead:

SUM(CASE WHEN ValueDate > @startMonthDate THEN cash ELSE 0 END)

Explanation

Your CASE expression has incorrect syntax. It seems you are confusing the simple CASE expression syntax with the searched CASE expression syntax. See the documentation for CASE:

The CASE expression has two formats:

• The simple CASE expression compares an expression to a set of simple expressions to determine the result.
• The searched CASE expression evaluates a set of Boolean expressions to determine the result.

You want the searched CASE expression syntax:

CASE
     WHEN Boolean_expression THEN result_expression [ ...n ] 
     [ ELSE else_result_expression ] 
END

As a side note, if performance is an issue you may find that this expression runs more quickly if you rewrite using a JOIN and GROUP BY instead of using a dependent subquery.

Try moving ValueDate:

select sum(CASE  
             WHEN ValueDate > @startMonthDate THEN cash 
              ELSE 0 
           END) 
 from Table a
where a.branch = p.branch 
  and a.transID = p.transID

(reformatted for clarity)

You might also consider using '0' instead of NULL, as you are doing a sum. It works correctly both ways, but is maybe more indicitive of what your intentions are.