Crystal expects the data to exist.  You can have extra fields that aren't used in the report, and Crystal doesn't care, but if you are missing a field, it gets upset.

 

I don't see any functions that deal with fields/data existing.  Again, I think that Crystal presumes if it is on the report, it must be 'in the data' since you can't create a formula without the field existing.

 

What you can do, I think (since my template is very simple), is to create 'Report Custom Functions' (my repository doesn't work, so I can't suggest that).  Since a function is data independent, if you have formatting or calculaltions that recur, you could call the function passing in the 'correct' field and crystal SHOULD be happy with that.

 

HTH