Adding Time-Based Variances to Charts

Add a time dimension to your SAP Analytics Cloud chart to see some recommendations for comparisons (variances) that you can also add.

When you create a chart and add a time or date dimension to it, some recommended comparisons will be listed in the Builder panel above the Measures list. Select one or more of the comparisons to add them to your chart. The first comparison is applied as a data label and the rest of the comparisons are listed as Variances at the top of the chart.

Only one variance can be added as a data label, but you can select a datapoint to see all the variances in the tooltip.

How to Choose a Time Comparison

You can choose to add a variance or comparison from the chart or from the builder panel.

Tip
The available comparison options are dependent on your time hierarchy: the more granular the hierarchy, the more options that will be available, including one or more of the following options:
  • Previous Period
  • Previous Year
  • Previous Half Year
  • Previous Quarter
  • Previous Month
  • Previous Week

  • From the chart: select the chart, or select a data point in the chart, and then either right-click or select (More Actions) and then select Compare To and choose a comparison option.

  • From the builder panel: select a chart and then in the builder panel choose a comparison from the Recommended Comparisons section.

    Note

    Recommended Comparisons won't be available if your time dimension uses week-level granularity or the dimension is a user-managed time dimension.

Change Variance Format

After you've added your variances, you can change how they are formatted and displayed in the chart.

  1. At the top of your chart, select Variances and then select one of the variances.

  2. Use the menu to change different aspects of the variance, or select Edit Variance to make changes in the Variance panel

  • Show Variance as:

    • Bar – displays a classic variance chart beside the regular chart.

    • Data Label – adds variance information to the data labels.

      Use data labels if there is no room to add a variance chart, or if you want variance information for charts that cannot use a variance chart.

    • Integrated – displays the variance data as an overlay on the bar chart.

    • Tooltip – displays the variance data in the chart's tooltip.

  • Show Difference as:

    • Number

    • Percentage

  • General Display Options:

    • Flip Base

    • Invert Colors – Reverse the color scheme from the following default values: a positive variance is shown in green, and a negative variance is shown in red.

    • Set No Data as Zero – To include a NULL data point in your variance, set it to the value zero.

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