Time Modifier Doesn’t Work for Metric Account
Question
Why is my metric account not
evaluating correctly with a time modifier in the formula?Answer
The time modifier
[time=this-X]
is specifically calculated relative to the current time period ("this"
is the lowest time strata of the sheet in question). Metric accounts are designed to
re-evaluate in roll-up periods, and in those cases something like "this-1" doesn't make sense
in a rollup period ("this" could be a quarter or full year for some cells, when the lowest
time strata is "month"). As a result, metric accounts do not support this form of time
modifier and will drop the time modifiers when evaluating in time rollup periods.As a
workaround, you may want to create separate accounts on a sheet to perform the time shift
calculations, and then reference those new accounts in the metric account (thus removing the
time modifiers from the metric itself).
For example,
ACCT.Example[time=this-1]
will not evaluate properly in a metric account. However, you can build a new custom account,
and place this same formula as a default for that account. You can then set
ACCT.New_Custom
as the formula in your metric account if desired.