Convert a Mearsure to an actual Number for a report..

I have a few COST activity configured fields that I sum up in Measures to produce a Project Measure avail to report on at the prject level. The problem it loses its COST/Number characteristic and come across as a "TEXT" value field. I can puh the report to EXCEL FORMAT X the Value by 1 and it flips to a Cost/Num again, but I can sum it directly in Oracle Report Writer because it thinks it is a 'TEXT value not a # Value. Bottle of Whiskey mailed to hwoever can tell me how to fix this.