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When you compare sales in the current calendar month with sales in the corresponding month last year, the prior month will typically have sales for the whole of that month, while the current month will only include transactions up to 'today'. You can alter this by applying the month to date option.

When you select Options > Month to date only the transactions from the prior month up to the same day of the current month are included. So for example, if today is the 7th of the month, the current month would only include transactions from 1st to 6th of the month and so only the transactions from 1st-6th of the comparison month would be included. This only has an effect in summary view, variance mode and stream mode and only when the displayed periods include the current physical month. For example, if the actual date is the 15-Nov-2014, activating 'month to date' will only have an effect if November 2014 is being displayed. 

In summary view both the current and previous periods need to include the same month for each respective year. For example, if the actual date is the 15-Nov-2014, 'month to date' will only work if both the current and previous periods include November.

Month to date only has an effect if the end month of the current period is the current month and current year.

Administrators may set some databases to turn on the Month to date option by default.

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titleRelated topics

 

Month to date example

Expand
titleCompare sales data for part of a month using Month to Date

In this example, the user wants to compare data for the first few weeks of June with the same part of the month in the previous year. We will assume today's date is the 20th of June 2014. We want a like-for-like comparison with the first 20 days in June last year (2013). We do this by using 'Month to Date'.

Step 1. Display data from this June vs last June. Select Period > Custom. Set the current period to start and end in June 2014, and the previous period to start and end in June 2013, as shown. Apply.

 

Step 2. Select the 'Customer' dimension and select Mode > Variance. By default, Month to Date is off in Phocas, so something similar to the image below will appear.

 

Step 3. Select Options > Month to Date. Data in the previous column should change as shown in the image below.

 

Step 3. Continue with your analysis. Month to Date will remain on in your current session. Note warning below.

Step 4. You could save this (as a favorite or as a dashboard widget), and share it with others. The Month to Date setting (whether on or off) will also apply to the shared user.

Note
titleImpact on performance

The 'Month to date' option can have a major impact on performance, especially on large databases. While it can be used effectively on general queries, extreme caution should be used when using this option on a collection of dashboard widgets, as the compound impact on performance can be severe.