Just do it as cbarlow3 told, create a new Variable with a intuitive name, and edit its params to be like this, considering that your retrieved column is called "value", and it's type is "java.math.BigDecimal": Variable Class: java.math.BigDecimal, Calculation: Sum, Reset Type: Report, Variable Expression: $F{value}, Initial Value Expression: 0 (or whatever default value you need). A screen is attached to help you guys. Hope that it helped.