This concept is a difficult one to explain with text so we advise that you watch this video before reading this article.
Our multistep reporting tool allows you to query multiple objects in 'steps' and then link those steps together to show a seamless view of seemingly disparate data. One thing to note about how it works is that each step truly is its own query. So a filter in step 1, is not being applied to step 2 and vice versa. If you apply a filter to step 2, that seems to be ignored by step 1, it is because step 1 does not have access to step 2's filter as they are separate queries. The solution is to apply more filters (sometimes duplicating step 2 filters) to step 1 in order to reduce the results to just the records you need. But this may be difficult to do. You may not have access to the step 2 objects from step 1 so you can't filter on them. Here are two suggestions:
1. You can use a different object as your starting object for step 1. If you can filter properly from a different object that is one level higher or lower (ie: a parent or child of the current object), maybe you can reach the right objects to filter on. Or similarly, you can add a new 'step 1' that is on a different object where the right objects are available to filter on. Then your current step 1 becomes step 2.
2. Another approach is to use our Saved and Nested filters. You can create a filter on child or grandchild objects in Apsona. And then add them to a filter on the parent object and save that as a filter. You can continue to save and nest filters higher up on the object hierarchy. Then you can call upon that filter in Step 1. This gets around the object reach limit you have in Step 1's filter.