Make Report Number Totals Display as Money

From the Inside Sesame Help Desk

How can I make my reports sum up a column of numbers and display the answer as money. The totals display as numbers and I can't find a way to change the format of the summary value in the footer. If you can tell me how to do this it will make my reports much more useful.
Michael

Summary calculation fields in Sesame will format themselves in accordance with the fields they're summarizing. So if you're summing a column that's formatted for numbers, the totals and subtotals will also be formatted as numbers. You can't change the format of a summary field. Sounds pretty bleak, huh? But we love bringing rays of sunshine to our readers.

Although you can't format the summary column, you can format a derived column. If you then summarize that derived column, the summary will display in the same format as the derived column.

The trick here is to add an invisible derived column - let's call it NumToMoney - to the report that's programmed to display the number field as money:

NumToMoney = @ToMoney(Order Amt)

To add a derived column to a report, you use the Layout Element Adder to add a Value Box. Leave the Bind Element To dropdown set to Unbound and type in the name you want to use. Then use the Property Editor to change the format of that new element.

The important part is that the derived (unbound) column is formatted as money and that the summary calculation is based on that field, not the actual number field.

Add one derived column to your report and you've got exactly what you're after.