syntax was seomthing like

<#assign linesSortedByDate = {}/>
<#list record.item as line>
<#if line.billeddate?has_content>
	<#assign billDate = line.billeddate>
	<#assign emp = line.employeefullname>
<#else>
	<#assign emp = "">
</#if>
<#assign memo = line.description + line.memo  + line.categorydisp>
<#assign rate = line.rate>
<#assign key = "a" + billDate?string["yyyy"]+billDate?string["MM"]+billDate?string["dd"] + emp + rate + memo>
<#if linesSortedByDate[key]??>
						<#assign linesSortedByDate = linesSortedByDate + { key: { "item": line.item, "billeddate": billDate, "employeefullname": emp, "description": line.description, "rate": line.rate, "quantity": linesSortedByDate[key]["quantity"] + line.quantity, "amount": linesSortedByDate[key]["amount"] + line.amount, "itemtype": line.itemtype, "memo": memo}}>
					<#else>
						<#assign linesSortedByDate = linesSortedByDate + { key: { "item": line.item, "billeddate": billDate, "employeefullname": emp, "description": line.description, "rate": line.rate, "quantity": line.quantity, "amount": line.amount, "itemtype": line.itemtype, "memo": memo }}>
					</#if>
<!-- later -->
<#list linesByDateKeys as key>
					<#assign item = linesSortedByDate[key]/>

thanks! i wound up getting basically to the same point with mine before coming back here and seeing your response, just working through annoying unexpected errors now