Creating or Editing a Time Series

To open the Create new time series set dialog:

• Click Create new time series set on the Time series tab.

Time series sets enable you to display a time series dimension with various periodicities and rates of growth.

• Time series dimensions and hierarchies have a special icon in the dimension list .

To create a time series set:

• Make your selections in the following fields, and then click Create time series.

Name

Enter a name if you wish. New time series sets are assigned the name "Time series set N" by default.

Periodicity

Choose a periodicity for the time series.

• The most-aggregated choice appears first, followed by more detailed selections. For example, Annual appears before Quarterly or Monthly.

Show in reverse order

If selected, the order of selected time series members in a table or chart will be the reverse of the order shown in the item list. This is useful for indicating a time series starting from the present time and moving backwards, instead of from the earliest entry and moving toward the present.

• This option also exists in regular time series selections, but for time series sets it is selected by default.

Year-to-date aggregations

If selected, Year-to-date aggregations will be enabled.

• This option is only available if the chosen periodicity is more detailed than Annual (such as quarterly or monthly).
• Not available if Indices is selected under Display.

Ending period

Shows choices for the selected periodicity.

• The first entry is always Most recent, followed by the other entries in reverse chronological order. Only up to the 2000 most recent periods (plus the special "Most recent" entry) are available for selection.
  
  Note: "Most recent" automatically inserts any new time period in the most recent position when you update your data.

Number of periods in series

Enter the number of previous periods that are required. The meaning of this entry depends on whether Year-to-date Aggregations is selected or not:

• If Year-to-date Aggregations is selected, "Number of periods in series" refers to "Previous parallel periods". For example, the two previous periods for February 2003 would be the aggregated year-to-date periods for February 2002 and February 2001.
• If Year-to-date Aggregations is not selected, "Number of periods in series" refers to "Previous chronological periods". For example, the two previous periods for February 2003 in this case would be January 2003 and December 2002.

Step value

Choose the desired interval between time periods. (Only available if "Number of periods in series" is greater than zero.)

For example:

• If Year-to-date aggregations is selected, and the number of Previous periods is two, a Step value of two would show entries for the aggregated year-to-date periods for February 2001 and February 1999.
• If Year-to-date aggregations is not selected, and the number of Previous periods is two, a Step value of two would show entries for December 2002 and October 2002.

Exclude ending period

Excludes the ending period, allowing users to work only with data for previous time periods. (Only available if "Number of periods in series" is greater than zero.)

• For example, you might wish to display data only for complete years, not for the current (partial) year.

Display

Choose from Values, Growth Rates, Values and Growth Rates, Level Changes, Values and Level Changes, Indices, and Values and Indices.

• "Number of periods in series" must be greater than zero for the Growth Rate and Level Change options to appear.

These features are only available if they have been enabled by the Perspective administrator.

Growth type

Shows the percentage growth between time periods. (Only available if "Growth rates" or "Values and growth rates" was selected in Display.)

Growth types is an optional feature that may not be enabled for all Perspective sites. Even if Growth types is enabled, a choice of growth types may not be provided.

Standard growth is calculated using the following formula:

(P2 - P1) / P1 * 100, where:

P1 is the value in the starting period (or YTD value for that period);

P2 is the value for the ending period.

(When P1 is zero or null, the calculation returns null.)

Average annual growth is calculated using the following formula:

(sgn(P2 / P1) * abs(P2 / P1) ^ (P / N) - 1) * 100, where:

P1 is the value in the starting period (or YTD value for that period);

P2 is the value for the ending period;

P is the average number of periods in a year for the selected periodicity:

• 1 for Annual and year-to-date aggregations,
• 2 for Semi-Annual aggregations,
• 4 for Quarterly aggregations,
• 12 for Monthly aggregations,
• 52 for Weekly aggregations,
• 365 for Daily aggregations;

N is the distance between starting and ending period.

When P1 is zero or null, the calculation returns null. The average annual method is not supported for periodicities more detailed than daily (hours, minutes, or seconds), or for any non-standard periodicities.

Between

Allows you to view percentage growth or level change either between all the selected periods, or only between the first and last period. (Only available if "Growth rates" or "Level changes" is also selected.)

Choose All periods or First and last period.

For example:

• Growth between all periods for "February 2003", "January 2003" and "December 2002" would result in the two entries "February 2003 - January 2003 Growth %" and "January 2003 - December 2002 Growth %".
• Growth between the first and last periods would result in the single entry "February 2003 - December 2002 Growth %".

Ending Index Period

Choose an index period. (This option only appears if "Indices" is selected in Display.)

• Indices are calculated as follows:
  
  Index = Period_Value / Base_Value * 100
• Base_Value is calculated as follows:
  
  Base_Value = Avg(Base Index period value + (Previous Index period value 1 to N)) where N is the number of Previous Index periods

Previous Index Periods

Choose the number of index periods to be used in calculating the index.

Note: Appropriate defaults are pre-specified for the selected periodicity, in the form of "Number of Periods in the Year" minus 1. For example, 11 for Monthly, 3 for Quarterly, 1 for Semi-annual, or 0 for Annual.

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