Force number of columns in Cross Tab?

[dunlop1975]

I am looking for a way to control the number of columns in a crosstab. There should always be 13 columns (based on fiscal periods).
The fiscal period is contained in the record, the issue I had for example was if I produced a report for up to period 6, the cross tab would only contain those 6 columns (I need to format to be static, even if the other 7 columns are empty). I got around this by creating a manual cross tab (13 formula's), but it is becoming very cumbersome as more reports of a similar nature are being requested.

thanks in advance.

 

[dunlop1975]

I forgot to mention, when I say the financial period is contained in the record it is a string value with 4 digits

0904 --> would be period 4 2009. It is easy enough to strip the period info but I cannot figure out how to make a formula that would allow 13 grouping that I could pull into the CT. ideally I would use this as opposed to creating a bunch of formulas that check for the date (our periods change from year to year)