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Requirement

Easily place different time dimensions (month, quarter, year) side by side in a report with columns for the delta between periods

Functional Area

Reporting

Industries
All
Tags
Time Granularity
Variance Analysis
DETAILS

Description

This functionality enables the comparison of data such as revenue, sales, and expenses across months, quarters, and years. The system must allow a drag and drop or other functionality to easily create the report, and pre-built calculated columns that can be inserted into the report where appropriate.

Example Use Case

Scenario: An international retail corporation utilizes CPM software to conduct quarterly and annual financial analysis. The organization wants to compare the sales performance for the products over different quarters of a fiscal year and also year-over-year.

Solution: The CPM software allows for creation of reports where different time dimensions, such as the specific quarter and the overall fiscal year, are placed side by side. A delta column is included to indicate the variance between the revenues of these periods. This comparative visibility enables the company to easily identify periods of high and low performance, supporting data-driven decision making.

Considerations

This functionality is not included in all CPM systems, hence the inclusion in our requirements database. For this to work, we want to see a result like the following:

Account Q1 FY24 ($) Q1 FY25 ($) FY24-FY25 ($) Q1 FY26 ($) FY25-FY26 ($)
Revenue 100,000 110,000 10,000 125,000 15,000
Cost of Goods Sold -50,000 -55,000 -5,000 -59,000 -4,000
Gross Profit 50,000 55,000 5,000 66,000 11,000
Operating Expenses -30,000 -32,000 -2,000 -35,000 -3,000
Operating Income 20,000 23,000 3,000 31,000 8,000
Interest Expense -5,000 -4,500 500 -3,800 700
Net Income 15,000 18,500 3,500 27,200 8,700

It does not necessarily have to be laid out like this. The goal is to be able to insert a column that will calculate the difference of what comes before it. Ideally the system will automatically scale this “delta” calculation for every new time period that is included in the report.

Questions to Ask a Vendor

  • Time Customization: How easy is it to place different time dimensions side by side in a report on your platform?
  • Re-Usable Report: How can I future proof the report? In other words, how can we ensure that as new time periods come into play, they also show up on the report?
  • Delta Calculation: What automatic capabilities does your system offer for calculating and presenting the delta between periods? Can that be automatically scaled as new time periods are added?