---
title: "Using Time Aggregation and Relative Comparisons"
description: "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."
source_url: https://support.lucanet.cloud/en/documentation/xp-a---extended-planning-and-analysis/viewing-and-visualizing-data/time-aggregation-and-relative-comparisons
language: en
last_updated: 2023-08-16
---
# Using Time Aggregation and Relative Comparisons

## Overview

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.

## Time Aggregation

In [charts](https://support.lucanet.cloud/en/documentation/xp-a---extended-planning-and-analysis/viewing-and-visualizing-data/using-tables-charts.md) and [tables](https://support.lucanet.cloud/en/documentation/xp-a---extended-planning-and-analysis/viewing-and-visualizing-data/using-tables.md), 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:

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:

Time aggregation menu on a roll-up column

{% idea-box %}
- 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](https://support.lucanet.cloud/en/documentation/xp-a---extended-planning-and-analysis/modeling-your-data/working-with-time/time-granularities.md).\
\
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](https://support.lucanet.cloud/en/documentation/xp-a---extended-planning-and-analysis/modeling-your-data/create-edit-variables/aggregation-functions.md).
{% /idea-box %}

## Relative Comparisons

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).

Comparisons in charts