Reference Account Value in Different Periods

Question

Is there a way to reference the value of an account in a different time period? If so, how can this be done?

Answer

Time modifiers can be used in formulas to reference the value of accounts in a different time periods. These modifiers can be manually entered in formulas or selected in the formula assistant from the Time drop-down selector in Term Modifiers area. For example,

ACCT.Expenses[Time=this-1]

would reference the value of the Expenses Account in the previous period. Below are some of the possible choices in the Time modifier drop-down list.

This
References the value of an account in the same month.

This+1
References the value of an account in the next month. The 1 in this modifier can be changed reference any period in the future.

This-1
- References the value of an account in the previous month. The 1 in this modifier can be changed reference any period in the past.

This.year
References the fiscal year value of an account. A -1 or +1 can be added to the syntax to reference the fiscal year total of the previous year or the next year. For example, [time=this.year-1] would reference the previous fiscal year total of an account. The 1 can also be changed to any number.

This.qtr
References the value of an account in this quarter. A -1 or +1 can be added to the syntax to reference the total of the previous quarter or the next quarter. For example,

[time=this.qtr+1]

would reference the account's total in the next quarter. The 1 can also be changed to any number.

01/2017
References the value of an account in a specific month and year. The month and year of the modifier can be changed.

2017
References the value of an account in a specific year. The year can be manually adjusted.

Q1-2017
References the value of the first quarter of the year. The quarter number and year can be manually

This-12:This-1
References the total value of an account for a relative range of periods. The 12 and 1 can be modified to any number.

Any time modifier can include the beginning time period, followed by a colon (:), followed by the ending time period to reference a range of periods. For example,

ACCT.Salaries [time=01/2017:06/2017]

would reference the total value of the Salaries Account in January through June of 2017. For periodic accounts (e.g. revenues and expenses,) this formula will sum the 6 time periods. For cumulative accounts (e.g. headcount or balance sheet accounts,) it will return the value from the last time period in the range.