do fields that tap into the database HAVE to be in the BOBody?
I want the client name and address to appear in a narrow column (130 px) on the left below my logo and the list of billable stuff to appear in the box on the right.
since tables seem to have to extend the width of BOBody i thought to place them outside that table.

it doesn't seem to work...

No they don't have to be in the body. Though anything that uses a table should be in the body because of their behavior. Items in the body appear only once and extend to the next page if there are a lot of objects to list. Where items outside appear on every page, (items like headers, logos, page number).

A table goes into a strip. The strip expands the width of the body. If you place a table inside of a strip it will only extend to the width you specify.