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Overview

Summaries create aggregated totals in order to provide the user with higher level data as part of a more detailed report. There are several types of summary that can be included in a table:

  1. Field Totals
  2. Categorical Sub Totals
  3. Section Totals
  4. Section Summary Tables
  5. Grand Totals

Depending on the type of summary you are creating, you will have access to a selection of the following types:

  1. Sum - this will add all of the values in the field to create the total.
  2. Average - this will find the mean value of all the values in the field to create the total.
  3. Count - this will count the number of values in the field to create the total.
  4. Count Distinct - this will count the number of unique values in the field to create the total.
  5. Calculated Total - this is only available if the field is a calculation, and uses the calculation to create the total.

Standard Table Summaries

Total Aggregation

There are two methods for adding a total to a field in a standard Column or Row based table:

Field Drop Down

  1. Click on the field's drop down menu, in either of these locations:
    1. Through the Columns/Rows list
    2. Through the Table Preview
  2. Select the Total option from the list and click on the aggregation you wish to use for the summary.
  3. You should now have a total on your field.

Column Formatting menu

  1. Click on the Column Formatting menu in the main navigation bar of the page
  2. Select the field you wish to apply a total to in the Report Fields list panel on the left of the menu
  3. Open the Summary section of the menu to view the available options
  4. Define the Total Aggregation option.

    You will notice that using the Column Formatting menu rather than the Field Drop Down list means that you have a range of additional options, rather than just the ability to select the aggregation to use. These will be explored below.
  5. You should now have a total on your field.

Display Labels

  1. Click on the Column Formatting menu in the main navigation bar of the page
  2. Select the field you wish to apply labels to in the Report Fields list panel on the left of the menu
  3. Open the Summary section of the menu to view the available options
  4. Set Display Labels to On
  5. You should now have a label on your total. The label will reflect the aggregation used for the total and cannot be customised.

Style

  1. Click on the Column Formatting menu in the main navigation bar of the page
  2. Select the field you wish to style the total of in the Report Fields list panel on the left of the menu
  3. Open the Summary section of the menu to view the available options
  4. Set Style to Custom
  5. Apply the formatting you wish to use. This will only customise the look of the total cell for the field selected.

Sub Total

 

Sub Totals are used when there are multiple records per category, possibly caused by having multiple dimension fields in a table, and it would be beneficial to view a total value for each category value. The example shown here could use a sub total for Year, as there are multiple rows per year value due to the Quarter field.

Note: in order to have a sub total display, you must have a total applied to the column you wish to populate the sub total row. For example, in the table above you will set the sub total on the Year category field, but you will have the total applied to the Invoiced field.

  1. Click on the Column Formatting menu in the main navigation bar of the page
  2. Select the category you wish to create a sub total for in the Report Fields list panel on the left of the menu
  3. Open the Summary section of the menu to view the available options
  4. Set Sub Total to On.
  5. You will now have a sub total row for each category value, populated by any metric that already has a total applied to it.

When using Sub Totals, we often pair this functionality with the Suppress Duplicates option, to make the report output easier to consume. To apply this option:

  1. Click on the Column Formatting menu in the main navigation bar of the page
  2. Select the category you applied the sub total to in the Report Fields list panel on the left of the menu
  3. Set the Suppress Duplicates option to On.
  4. You will now have a clearer report output

Section Summaries

Section Summary

  1. Click on the Section Formatting menu in the main navigation bar of the page
  2. Select the section field you wish to use as the category in the section summary table at the top of the report
  3. Close the menu. You will now have a section summary table at the top of the page that links down to each individual section

Section Total & Labels

  1. Click on the Section Formatting menu in the main navigation bar of the page
  2. Enable the Section Total and Show Labels options as desired
  3. You will now have a total row for each section of the report

Grand Totals

  1. Click on the Section Formatting menu in the main navigation bar of the page
  2. Enable the Grand Totals option
  3. You will now have a single Grand Total row at the bottom of the last section that totals up the entire report.

Cross Tab Summaries

Column Totals

  1. Click on the field drop down menu of the Column header in the report preview
  2. Select the Column Totals option from the drop down list
  3. You will now have a total row for each column

Row Totals

  1. Click on the field drop down menu of the Column header in the report preview
  2. Select the Column Totals option from the drop down list
  3. You will now have a total row for each column