I learned something new about Crystal Reports today. It has to do with Group Selection, which you may not be familiar with. Group Selection allows you to filter a report based on subtotals. For example: “only show me customer groups with a subtotal of more than $5000”.  There is a separate Select Expert and a separate Selection Formula just for Group Selection, which mirrors Record Selection.

The tricky part about Group Selection is that while it shortens the report, it normally doesn’t reduce your grand totals. This can confuse users. So if you have a grand total that says you have 50 customers, and you use a group selection filter to eliminate half of the customer groups, your grand total will not go down. It will still say you have 50 customers even if only 25 remain in the report.  The normal solution is to replace the summary field grand total with a running grand total.  Running totals reflect the group selection criteria while regular summary fields do not.

What I learned today is that when your group selection eliminates ALL the groups in the report, then your grand totals will all be blank or zero. I was expecting the Group Selection to eliminate the groups, but for the grand totals to remain the same.   

You can read more about Group Selection and Running Totals in my Expert’s Guide to Totals, which is now a free download.