To properly display a report with grouped data and subtotals (also known as a subsummary report), data must be sorted to display the appropriate break fields. If you have a subsummary report, data in the report is grouped and displayed by the category that produced the totals. However, you can specify a subsummary value to sort on to reorder data more logically in a report.
Suppose you create a report that subtotals sales by region. You can sort data in the report by region (Example 1) or you can specify that
records in the report are sorted by
subsummary values, which lists data by total sales (Example 2).
In both examples, Total Sales is a summary field that shows regional totals when sorted by Region.
Example 1: Report with grouped data and subtotals, not sorted by subsummary values
Example 2: Report with grouped data and subtotals, sorted by subsummary values