Sigma’s PoP (Period-over-Period) comparison menu
1. Sigma’s PoP (Period-over-Period) comparison menu
Welcome back. In this video, we'll cover the period-over-period comparison menu in more detail. We'll talk about how to access and configure it. Let's get started. Perhaps we have a table of quarterly loan openings, and we’d like to compare the number of loans opened each quarter to the same quarter in the year before. We’ll click on the [loans opened] column and use its dropdown to choose ‘ADD NEW COLUMN VIA’ and ‘Period over period comparison’. This opens the period-over-period comparison menu. The Compare field must point to the numeric metric column you’re comparing over time. The Aggregate menu can be used if your data is not already at the desired level of granularity. In this case, each row is already aggregated to the quarterly level, so we keep ‘None’, but we’ll experiment with aggregation in a later video. Next, we reference the correct date column for the comparison, and then we choose the type of comparison we’re doing. The comparison inherits the time frame of your date column, as in this list that already shows only quarter-based comparisons–last quarter and same quarter last year. Last quarter would compare to the quarter immediately prior, such as comparing Q4 to Q3, whereas ‘same quarter last year’ would compare Q4 of this year to Q4 of last year. As mentioned earlier, Sigma developers much choose carefully according to their use case. We’ll choose ‘same quarter last year’, since we’re focused on the long-term trend. Each of the three checkboxes at the bottom of the window will add a new column to your data. So, if needed, you can add not only the prior quarter’s number of loan openings, but also the percentage difference and absolute difference it represents from the current quarter. As you can see, Sigma’s PoP comparison menu automates the tricky setup work of period-over-period analysis. It automatically defines & understands relative time periods within your table and saves you from building complex variance formulas, joins or pivot tables by hand. A final note before some exercises - the period-over-period comparison menu is best suited for use with clean data and standard timeframes. We’ll cover formula-based methods for custom timeframes in a later video.2. Let's practice!
Now its your turn to try a few hands-on exercises to practice with the PoP comparison menu.Create Your Free Account
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