Reference Period 
Definition
The period that is used as the reference characteristic for drilling into the consolidation units of a consolidation group. The reference period of a report is the period that is used during the selection of transaction data to determine the (date-sensitive) grouping of consolidation units in a consolidation group.
The characteristic that enables you to explicitly specify in drilldown reporting the parameters for drilling into the consolidation units of a consolidation group. This is necessary to select transaction data for a consolidation group.
If the attributes of the organizational units are version and date sensitive, the reference period is also the period for which the attributes of the organizational unit are determined.
Use
As with all reference characteristics, the reference period is a basis for drilling into the consolidation units of a consolidation group, and determines which period is used to read the consolidation group hierarchy and the attributes. The consolidation group hierarchy and attributes are the basis for interpreting the transaction data. The period determines the period of the transaction data to be read.
If no reference period is specified, then the characteristic period is used for hierarchy drilling and attribute determinations. If the period is specified in a cell (or a row or a column) of the report, then the highest of the specified periods is used as the reference period. If the period is not specified in a cell of the report, then the value 16 is used as the reference period.
The reference period can only be used in conjunction with the consolidation group, the totals consolidation group or a version and date-sensitive attribute. If the reference period in a form is defined in the cell definition, instead of in the general selection, the reference period must then be specified in all other cells as well.
Example
Temporal Restatement in Reporting: Period Comparison
You define a form with one coordinate as follows:
Single values |
Dimension |
Totals consolidation group |
|
Consolidation version |
|
Fiscal year |
|
Reference Period |
|
Columns |
2 columns with the same key figure |
Difference between the columns |
Period range 0-12 vs. 0-6 |
The corresponding report shows year-to-date transaction data for the two time periods in the two columns. However, the report uses the composition of the consolidation group as the basis for the reference period. If you specify the ending period of the first column (12) as the reference period, reporting then re-interprets the data of the second column. This means that the data of the second column is selected for period range 0-6. However, this is based on the composition of the consolidation group according to period12 (the reference period). This enables the report to show a drilldown on the characteristic consolidation group that shows a hierarchy for the given fiscal year and period 12.