Ok, I guess I didn't provide enough info. I'm using studio 5.3.0 I'm working on a quote report, so it has the usual header type detail (main report) and a bunch of part detail with an extended total (subreport). The extended total is summed in the variable mech_tot. I want to pass this back to the main report and pick it up as sr_merh_tot. When I define the return value as discribed above it takes it but once I compile the main report the return value item is gone. I'm assuming it has something to do with the way I have it configured but I have thied every combination I can thing of. Thanks for the reply!