Running Totals

[tkaplan]

What is the general rule in reports - when do you set the running totals property to "over group" or "over all" or when do you use the sum() function?

I am so confused and i can never figure out which one to use so if someone can explain it I would be forever greatful.

Thank you.

 

[Pat Hartman]

You set the propery to "over group" when you want it to restart after a group break. For example, if you sorted an address list by state and included a state grouping, "over group" would restart the numbering at each break in state but "over all" would continue from record 1 to the last record without resetting.

Sum() is used whenever you want to provide totals. In report by department that includes phone expenses for example, you would use the Sum() function in the department footer and in the report footer to get costs for each department as well as a total for the company.

 

[tkaplan]

comparing the two methods:
using the example you provided of phone expenses, what would be the difference in :

running totals report:
department
detail: employee_name , amount_used
department footer: text box of amount_used with settings set to running total over group
report footer: text box of amount_used with settings set to running total over all

versus
sum report:
department
detail: employee_name , amount_used
department footer: text box named dep_total: sum(amount_used)
report footer: text box of sum(dep_total)

Thank you