How to Run Crystal Reports for Yesterday, Last Week or Last Month Automatically

Imagine sending a monthly sales statement on the first working day. The schedule runs correctly, but someone still edits its start and end dates before every month’s report. Forgetting that change sends the previous period again.

The requirement is a moving selection: whenever the job runs, it should calculate the agreed completed month. That is separate from choosing the date on which the schedule executes.

For this example, a November run should select October’s sales. A late rerun for an older month needs a deliberate period choice, rather than automatically adopting whatever “last month” means on the day it is rerun.

A Crystal record-selection formula can calculate a relative period, and a SQL query or stored procedure can own the rule when that is how the report obtains its data. Those are useful native approaches when the reporting period should be part of the report’s logic.

CRD can supply relative values to report parameters through Inserts. Its documented constants include Yesterday, prior-week weekdays, MonthStartLastMonth and MonthEndLastMonth. This suits a report whose start and end parameters are already used in its selection.

A dynamic parameter list is a different feature: listing available dates does not necessarily select the required relative period automatically.

The CRD Inserts guide lists the date constants, while the Single Report guide explains using them in parameter fields.

Confirm that the report has working start and end date parameters. In the CRD schedule’s parameter fields, use Inserts to supply the first and last dates of the previous month, matching the types expected by the report.

Check the selection formula or query that uses those parameters. If the source contains timestamps, an end date interpreted as midnight may omit transactions later that day. Use the date-range logic appropriate to the report rather than assuming the displayed date proves all records are included.

Run to a controlled destination and compare the first and last transactions with the intended month. Repeat the calculation across a year boundary and February so the test does not depend on one convenient month length.

A relative date is evaluated for a run. If finance later asks for an older statement, decide whether to use retained output or generate that historical period explicitly.

An application starting the job should keep the requested business period with the execution record. It should not assume that a schedule’s name fixes its parameter dates.

The monthly statement should arrive for the intended completed period without someone remembering to edit two fields. The recipient should be able to see that period in the finished report.

Explore CRD scheduling with your report’s real date parameters and boundary cases.