Using Time Aggregation and Relative Comparisons

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: