Duplication of Amounts in report based on One-many joins

Question

Sorry for the long description but I think it's better to be explicit. This is a very generic problem though with the design of BO. We have BO /Webi 6.5. I support a reporting system delivered by a third party, and need to fix issues with the reports. I am free to customise the views, the Universe and the reports. The most frequent problem I am faced with, is that of duplication of figures in report columns derived from 'measure' objects.    For eg:
A report needs to display Fixed Asset Capital Cost and Depreciation over period from-to. In a simplified form, the views and universe design are as following:
Two tables(views):
1. Fixed Asset:
Asset Number,
Asset Description,
Acquisition Date,
Retire Date,
Capital Cost ($)
The capital cost (acqusition cost) does not change
2. Fixed Asset Depreciation:
Asset Number,
Period Number,
Period Depreciation ($)
The Period Depreciation is a value that is deducted from the asset's capital value, month after month, until the asset is fully depreciated.
The two tables join on Asset Number. There is a 1 to N cardinality from table 1 to table 2, as well as outer join because not all Fixed Assets will have depreciation recorded.
As assets come and go, when the report is run for period from/to, not all assets have depreciation records for each period in range.
Report prompts are: Period Number From  & Period Number To.
The report needs to display Grand Totals for:
Total Capital Costs from all assets that were on books in period from/to
Total depreciation period from/to
Simplified Report Format:
Reporting period From/To
Asset Number | Description               | Capital Cost  | Depreciation
nnnnnnnnnn  |   xxxxxxx                  |   99999999   |  99999999
========================================================
Grand Totals: Count Asset: 99999    |   99999999   |  99999999
Universe Objects for Capital Cost and Period Depreciation are defined as Measures.
I have defined a second object in the Universe for Capital Cost as a Dimension, [Capital Cost dim],  which allows to report correct Capital Cost value against the fixed asset item in the detail row of the deport. 
In the report Grand Total I need to display sum([Capital Cost dim]). The problem I have is that this Grand Total includes duplication of amounts for Capital Cost, when reported for Perid From <> Period To, and where more than one period depreciation is recorded for the asset.
I realise the reason for the problem is in the joining of the two tables as a 1-N and so the Capital Cost is duplicated. I was not able to find a work around. In other reporting tools I could solve the problem in the report design, by naming the break variable used to report Capital Cost against the asset, and then summing up from that variable to obtain the Grand Total. In BO & Webi this does not seem to be available, the variable definitions for sum([object]) are global and appear to work the same on all breaking levels up to grand total.
Your help is much appreciated.
Edited by: Calator on Jun 2, 2010 8:18 AM

Answer 1

Two ways to over come this situation,
1. Create two data providers. One for the Depreciation and the second on for Fixed cost.
In the report merge asset Number and have the measure objects do the magic for you.
2. Kind of complex, but worth trying. This works in the table column, Try and see if it works in the footer of the table
Create a varible for the table column.
Asset# count=Count([(Merged)Asset Number])
Actual value=Sum(If([Asset# count]>1; ([Fixed Cost]/[Asset# count]);[Fixed Cost]))-Sum([Depreciation])