Working with Time Intervals

Analyzing or categorizing data by time intervals can be quite challenging due to the various types of financial calendars that exist. Each organization has its own policy of when the financial year starts and ends, and of how the year is broken down into financial periods.

The time intervals feature allows you to define your organization’s financial year and periods (or those of the data being analyzed), then use that information when summarizing data, as well as in the 14 new date functions.

In addition, the formatting masks for each of the 13 time intervals can be user defined. These settings are saved in the model and can also be saved to the registry to be set as defaults when creating a new model.

Time intervals are configured via the Time Intervals Options dialog. To access this dialog, select Options, Time Intervals (ALT, O, M) from the main menu. Note that you may have to consult with your Finance department to obtain detailed information on your financial calendar.

The following steps are taken to configure the fiscal year and calendar week.

Select Options from the Home Ribbon to display the Options Window.
Select Time Intervals on the Options ribbon to display the tab to display the Time Intervals Options panel.
Specify whether the fiscal year consists of 12 calendar months (e.g., January 1st to December 31st) or a 52/53 fiscal weeks model by selecting one of the following options:
- The fiscal year consists of 12 calendar months
  
  If the fiscal year is based on calendar months, select this option then select the start month from the drop-down list.
  
  Choose whether the first full week of the financial year starts on a particular day of the week or the first day of the financial year regardless of the day of the week. If day of the week is selected, designate any partial weeks at the start of the year as week 0 or week 1.
- The fiscal year consists of 52-53 fiscal weeks
  
  If the fiscal year is based on a 52/53 week model, select this option, then choose the start month and day number, the start day of the fiscal week and the year start/end method.
  
  Also choose whether the year is divided into four 13-week quarters or thirteen 4-week periods. Note: If the latter, and the year has 53 weeks, select the period in which to place the extra week.
  
  Note: As different options are selected, the changes are reflected in the Sample Fiscal Years preview at the bottom of the dialog. This shows fiscal years in the past and the future, with the start date, end date and number of days.
Click the Formatting tab to customize the formatting masks for the time intervals.
Select OK.

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