Summing negative times on a report

[rikklaney1]

I have a field that saves minutes and seconds past a time limit as negatives. So my field has a value like -02:23. Now my question is how can I get a sum of the negative numbers on a report? Is this even possible? I have converted positive numbers to seconds, totaled them, then converted back to MM:SS before but I cannot get the same process to work with negatives and I cannot for the life of me convert the negatives to positives. Any suggestions on how to do this?

 

[Ranman256]

sum the absolutes in the query, ABS(field)

 

[rikklaney1]

Abs gives me a "too complex to be evaluated" error. I've found a way to do it (sort of) by using expr2: Right([47-mura],4). That gives me a field without the negative and then I can sum that field. Thanks.