Transferring from where?

You would need a snapshot of the data before the transfer to compare to.

I'm not sure I understand what you mean...

Do you know if there is a table in Lawson that holds the department history?  What would my formula look like if I was trying to capture the last department BEFORE the current one?

I wouldn't say "easy", but you can get this information from your history tables (either PERSACTHST or HRHISTORY). There is field number (FLD_NBR) associated with dept changes. I want to say FLD_NBR = 15, but that's just a guess. Query PADICT/PADICT2 to find the field number associated with dept changes.

If you try to use sql to identify the previous dept, this can be painful from a performance perspective. I usually use the database procedure language to accomplish this type of task. I suppose if you brought in all of the dept history into your Crystal report, you could evaluate the data within the report to find the previous dept...

That sounds like the APAUDIT table functionality. You may be able to find the FLD_NBR descriptions in the TECH documentation. Be sure to limit by date range or you could bring down your whole system.

As long as you have history turned on for the fields of interest, they are stored in HRHISTORY. How you get them out and onto the report is a major undertaking. I've actually been successful in deploying those types of reports using custom SQL, some stored procedures, and/or subreports.