Building sub-summary reports in FileMaker

Intermediate

Create grouped reports with sub-totals using Sub-summary parts — and understand why the sort order is the key to making them work.

What you'll learn

How to add Sub-summary parts to a layout
How to place summary fields in the correct part
Why the sort is mandatory and how to ensure it

Sub-summary reports group records by a field and show aggregate values (totals, counts, averages) for each group — but only when the found set is sorted by the grouping field.

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Create summary fields first

Before building the layout, define summary fields in Manage Database. A summary field type (Total, Count, Average, etc.) operates on a related set of records.

TEXT

// In Manage Database > Fields:
Field Name: totalAmount    Type: Summary    Options: Total of Amount
Field Name: invoiceCount   Type: Summary    Options: Count of id

Merge fields in FileMaker — inline field values in text Card windows in FileMaker — modal overlays