Incorrect Percentage Summary

Lots of times we come across a report that has a percentage computation and a row summary. Upon checking the percentage summary, we realize it is incorrect. The percentage summary is being added instead of being computed using the summary totals. The image below shows a simple example:

As you can see, the Target% summary is incorrectly calculated as the sum of 112.1 + 262.3. The correct value is 192.3 (4323/2248).

This is caused when the summary was made before adding percentage calculation. The more complicated fix is to delete the summary, add the percentage calculation, then summarize the data.

A simple fix can be done however, by setting the Solve Order of the percentage data item to a higher value. This will result to calculating that data item last. In this case, the Solve Order property is set to 2.

After running the report, the correct value is obtained.