Time Modifier Doesn’t Work for Metric Account
This article includes suggestions and workarounds. Content may not be accurate for all use cases or represent best practices for the latest release.
Question
Why is my metric account not
evaluating correctly with a time modifier in the formula?Answer
The time modifier
[time=this-X]
is specifically calculated relative to the current time period ("this"
is the lowest time strata of the sheet in question). Metric accounts are designed to
re-evaluate in roll-up periods, and in those cases something like "this-1" doesn't make sense
in a rollup period ("this" could be a quarter or full year for some cells, when the lowest
time strata is "month"). As a result, metric accounts do not support this form of time
modifier and will drop the time modifiers when evaluating in time rollup periods.As a
workaround, you may want to create separate accounts on a sheet to perform the time shift
calculations, and then reference those new accounts in the metric account (thus removing the
time modifiers from the metric itself).
For example,
ACCT.Example[time=this-1]
will not evaluate properly in a metric account. However, you can build a new custom account,
and place this same formula as a default for that account. You can then set
ACCT.New_Custom
as the formula in your metric account if desired.