Maximum date calculation for all records

For Crystal Reports version 8.5, I need a report for last year's amounts and this year's amounts. My raw data looks like: fund-type, fund-id, customer-id, check amount, check date, last year's beginning date, last year's ending date, this year's beginning date, and this year's ending date. The beginning and ending dates are subject to change. Also, out of the 2,000 records in the raw data, about 5 of the records have the beginning and ending dates attached. I have used the summary calculation of Maximum to find the beginning and ending dates. My problem is that I cannot use the Maximum function in the formula fields to determine if a check is for last year or this year. I also need totals for a customer's checks (last year and this year), fund-id amounts (this year and last year), and fund-type (last year and this year). When I try to create running-totals, I receive the error message that the summary/running totals cannot be created. Is there a way to create this report?
Thank you for any and all help and advice,
TracySHCCreate a formula having the code

If year(datecol)<year(currentdate) then
1
else
2
Place it in details section
Now group the report by this formula and use summary accordingly