Patttie,
One trick I have used to show and filter my reports...is to add a field(s) to the company table for your date variables. And it only has one record so you know you can only have one set of parameters. This table shows on all reports. I usually add a param1 and param2 field and use them for date start, date end or whatever.
On your screen, update the value of the parameterfield with your date or whatever.
Then in designer, you can filter your report by the company table parameter fields. And you can easily set alabel on your report to show the dates shown.
Hope that helps..