Copy of Offset dates

The Offset date option allows you to set a date (or date range) based on today's date, so that the data continues to update. Instead of a fixed date such as 'Start: January 2014' or 'End: March 2014' you can define a dynamic range such as 'year to date' or 'Last month'.

When offset dates are available

Offset dates are available when adding a period to the defined period list and when setting period option as part of defining a measure (for custom mode or advanced search). You will be presented with a slightly different window depending what you are doing, but the concept is the same.

How to apply offset dates

Tick Offset. You can choose to set both the start and end dates as offsets, or just one.
Enter the offset date as a number, either manually or using the arrows, and Apply. For example, if you select 'Month' as your time unit, an offset of 0 means the current month, an offset of -2 would be two months ago (as shown in the image below), and so on.

The timeframe will be displayed next to the offset.

Offset date settings

Typical settings for offset dates

Example	Time unit	Start	End
Calendar Year to Date	Month	Not Offset. Choose January	Offset: 0
Financial Year to Date	Month	Not Offset. Choose start month of financial year, e.g. July	Offset: 0
Last month	Month	Offset: -1	Offset: -1
This month	Month	Offset: 0	Offset: 0
Rolling 12 months	Month	Offset: -11	Offset: 0
Today	Day	Offset: 0	Offset: 0
Yesterday	Day	Offset: -1	Offset: -1
Last 7 days	Day	Offset: -6	Offset: 0
Last three years	Year	Offset: -2	Offset: 0

Special offsets

contains two inputs:

The first input (more detail below) allows the user to choose one of the special days (via dropdown).

First Day
Last Day
Match Today
Match Yesterday

The second input requires the user to offset that special day against a month, in the usual manner.

Click off the pop-up to activate.

Offset and special dates are displayed in words. Actual dates are displayed as dates.

......

Users can now choose from four new 'month' offset options:

First Day: First day of the offset month
Last Day: Last day of the offset month
Match Today: Tries to match today's date in the offset month
- If today is the 13th, then will get the 13th of the offset month
- If today is the 29th, 30th or 31st and a direct match is unavailable, will get last day off the offset month
Match Yesterday: Tries to match yesterday's date in the offset month
- If yesterday is the 12th, then will get the 12th of the offset month
- If today is the 1st, then will get last day off the month prior to the offset month
- If yesterday is the 29th or 30th and a direct match is unavailable, will get second last day of the offset month.

If the user chooses an offset or a special date, it will be displayed in words on save. This is different to existing.

If the user chooses an actual date, it will be displayed as a date on save (as per existing)

Special

Option	Examples	What is displayed
First Day	-3	First day of 3 months ago
Last Day	1	Last day of next month
Match Today	4, -1, -3	Today 4 months ahead, Today last month, Today 3 months ago
Match Yesterday	5, 1, -2	Yesterday 5 months ahead, Yesterday next month, Yesterday 2 months ago
Match Today	0	Today
Match Yesterday	0	Yesterday