CF field can't compute other CF fields in realtime?

I'm using CF to tabulate data in created content. The user specifies hours for each section, CF successfully multiplies by pay for each section, and then a grand total CF field adds all the sections' CF total pay field:

$node_field[0]['value'] =
$node->field_computetotal[0]['value'] +
$node->field_edfcompute1[0]['value'] +
$node->field_edfcompute2[0]['value'] +
$node->field_edfcompute3[0]['value'] +
$node->field_edfcompute4[0]['value'] +
$node->field_edfcompute5[0]['value'] +
$node->field_edfcompute6[0]['value'] +
$node->field_edfcompute7[0]['value'];

However, this doesn't seem to work after the initial creation of the document. After editing the document and resaving it, the grand total field finally works.

Is there a workaround or something?