Archive question

Hello i am making a script to record how many insurance policies are sold in a month along with loads of other statistics.

How can i dynamically create a system whereby the archive automatically creates links once a month has ended! ie:

> 2006 > Jan - Feb - March - April - May etc

But at 00:00:01 on the 1st of Jan 07 i want

> 2006 > Jan

to be visible? Are there any good php/mysql tutorials on creating an archive like this?

Cheers

Ive actually figured most of it out. The only logic i cant figure out is:

My site only went live this month so i dont have any records before

2006 > November - December

How can i automically generate archive months and years from November 2006 forward only?