--From http://scn.sap.com/thread/1038505

In Crystal Reports 9 and later, you can suppress a subreport but still pass a shared variable with the correct data to the main report by following the steps below:

In the Subreport

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1. Remove all conditional suppression formatting formulas.

2. Delete all drawing objects such as boxes, lines, etc.

3. Suppress all remaining subreport objects such as database fields, formulas, etc.

4. For all sections that contain no objects, select the 'Suppress' option in the Section Expert.

5. For all sections that contain suppressed objects, select the 'Suppress Blank Section' option in the Section Expert.

In the Main Report

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1. Select the 'Suppress Blank Subreport' option in the subreport Format Editor.

2. Remove all borders from the subreport object in the subreport 'Format Editor'.

3. Select the 'Suppress Blank Section' option in the 'Section Expert' for the section containing the subreport.

Background Information

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When working with subreports, the 'Suppress Blank Section' option forces CR to evaluate the subreport contained within the section to determine if the final subreport output is blank. The 'Suppress' option allows CR to bypass the subreport completely, because the section is suppressed. By forcing Crystal Reports to evaluate the suppressed shared variable formulas in the subreport, the data can be correctly passed from the subreport to the main report even though the subreport is not visible to the end user.