When you are in certain menus or have certain functions open inside of business center and try to run an additional command that involves selecting objects, select by layer isn't always possible within the tool opened, as in the field is greyed out with only layer zero shown and it is not selectable.
In this particular case, if I have template editor open, and try to run a corridor station offset report I can not select my topo shots by their layer to run the report against the updated surface. I believe this is also the case with alignment editor and side slope template editor as well.
*It seems that the View Filter Manager requires an update or refresh in these instances.