Periods

Periods are time and date ranges for the data displayed in the Phocas grid, and are often set to months or years. In Phocas a 'period' is often actually two date ranges: A current period and a comparative previous period. You can select a defined period or add your own, or apply a custom period to current analysis.

Month to date

Fixed and dynamic dates

Custom period dates are fixed, i.e., you can set a date as 'January 2016', for example, but you can't define, say, 'last month''.

If you want a dynamic date range you can use offset dates, which are available when you add your own defined period. This option allows you to set a date (or date range) based on today's date, so that the data updates.

The Period button displays the selected period for the database. If you have not selected a period, the default period for that database is displayed (in the image below, it's 'Rolling 12 months').