Using Time Aggregation and Relative Comparisons

Getting Started

Global Functions

Administration

Extended Planning & Analysis (xP&A)

xP&A Video Tutorials

User Roles in Lucanet xP&A

Lucanet xP&A User Interface

All Steps at a Glance

Basic Concepts and Elements

Creating a Model

Integrating Data

Modeling Your Data

Viewing and Visualizing Data

Using Dashboards

Using Scenarios

Using Charts

Using Tables

Using Views

Comparing Versions or Scenarios in Charts and Tables

Using Time Aggregation and Relative Comparisons

Working with Models

Using Comments and Descriptions

Comparison: xP&A vs. Excel Performance

Consolidation & Financial Planning

ESG Reporting

Disclosure Management

XBRL Tagger

Lease Accounting

Banking & Cash Management

Data Collection

Tax Compliance & Reporting

Glossary

xP&A offers different functionalities to compare or aggregate your data in order to gain deeper insights, identify trends, and support strategic decision-making across planning and analysis workflows.

In charts and tables, and in the roll-up columns in a spreadsheet, xP&A can automatically aggregate a variable's values across time.

Example: If your model is monthly and you have a Revenue variable, then xP&A can automatically summarize the total revenue in each year.

The time aggregation function lets you choose how this summary is calculated. The following options are available:

Sum

Sums up the individual values, e.g. anything that represents a discrete quantity which can accumulate, e.g. "Revenue"

Average

Calculates the mean of the individual values, e.g. generally anything that's a percentage, like "Growth rate"

Final

Takes the final value in the set of individual values, e.g. anything representing an accumulation, like "Total users" or "Cash in bank", or a percentage that you expect to move roughly monotonically

Initial

Takes the first value in the set of individual values

Formula

Uses the variable's formula to calculate an aggregation value, e.g. if you have a variable for the margin with the formula profit / revenue, the formula aggregation will take the total profit and divide it by the total revenue of the aggregated period.

You can set up the time aggregation as follows:

In charts and tables

Right-click a variable and choose Aggregation | Time Aggregation and then the desired aggregation methods from the context menu:

Shows the context menuof a variable. Highlighted is the path to the time aggregation functions — Time aggregation menu on a variable

In roll-up columns

If you have roll-up columns toggled on, you can click a rollup cell to easily edit the Time aggregation setting for each variable:

Shows the menu that opens when you click on a roll-up column — Time aggregation menu on a roll-up column

Note that the time aggregation setting of a variable also determines

how a variable is 'rolled up' to a model with a higher-level granularity

For example, when a model with lower granularity (such as Monthly) pulls data from a model with higher granularity (such as Weekly), the time aggregation setting determines if it should pull the sum, the average, the final etc.

For more information on aggregation functions for data and dimensions, see

Aggregation Functions

You can easily compare the value of a variable across relative time periods (e.g. the prior month, the prior year). The comparison is shown on a time aggregated basis too, if relevant.

For example, if your model is monthly and you have set your table to yearly time aggregation with the showing the variance as a relative comparison, a Year-over-Year Comparison (YoY) will show for 2025 vs. 2026, as well as each month (e.g. Jan 2025 vs. Jan 2026).