How can I replicate a Different software solution in apsona that aggregates and displays grouped totals (such as totals by Class) using Apsona reports and Document Merge?

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Yes, Apsona can fully replace a solution that merges data, lists detailed records, and summarizes totals by a grouping field. The key is to break the template data into multiple reports instead of trying to drive everything from one source.

What the user needed to produce

A single merge document containing:

Top-level summary fields
A detailed list of donation or transaction items
A table summarizing counts and totals
A second table grouping items by a category (e.g., Class)

How we achieved this using Apsona

To support both detailed listings and grouped summaries, we advised building multiple data sources instead of a single multi-step report:

Create a Multi-Step Report for parent-level data

Used only to pull high-level header information (e.g., batch name, date, owner).

Build a report to return individual donation/line items

Used to populate the detailed sublist showing every record.

Create a second report grouping those same items

Grouped and aggregated totals by the required field (such as Class).
Mimicked the Conga query behavior.

Map each report as its own merge sublist

One for detailed rows
One for grouped totals
One for top-level fields

Apsona’s merge engine can include multiple reports in one template, allowing different sublists to use different data sets.
Trying to force all detail and grouping logic into a single MSR generally won’t work, because:

Aggregated group output and raw detail rows require different shapes of data
MSRs can feed a single sublist, so multiple listings require multiple sources

Outcome

After building separate reports and reconnecting them in the merge template:

Detailed items displayed correctly
Grouped totals calculated properly
The customer was able to fully replace their different software process

All output was generated using Apsona alone, no queries, or extra logic required
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