Creating, Editing, and Deleting Time Labels

Time labels enable you to work with viewpoint data at a point in time in history and to future-date a request.

You can create two classes of time labels:

  • Historical time labels enable you to create time labeled viewpoints that display data as it existed at a point in history.
  • Future time labels enable you to set a future date for a request to be completed.

You must have the Owner permission on a view in order to create, edit, or delete a time label for it.

Historical Time Labels

Historical time labels enable you to work with viewpoint data at a point in time in history in order to assist in comparing, reporting, and analyzing data.

You can create two types of historical time labels:

  • Fixed time labels are for a specific date and time in the past. For example, you can create a fixed time label from the initial creation of a Product node set in order to track changes made to it over time.
  • Rolling time labels represent the end of a month, quarter, or year. For example, you can create a rolling quarterly time label for an Account node set in order to compare current data to last quarter's data.

After you create a historical time label for a view, you can create a time labeled version of any viewpoint in that view in order to work with data from that point in time. See Working with Time Labeled Viewpoints.

Note:

Time labeled viewpoints are read only.

Future Time Labels

Future time labels enable you to select a date in the future on which requests that use the time label will be completed. Requests that have been assigned a future time label will continue to go through all necessary workflow approvals, but they will only be completed and closed when the time in the time label is reached.

You can create future time labels for fixed time periods only. Unlike historical time labels, you cannot create rolling future time labels. However, after the time in a future time label has been reached and there are no longer any active requests assigned to that time label, you can modify the dates and reuse the time label. This lets you create, for example, an "End of Month" time label that you can reset each month after the previous month end has been reached and the associated requests have been closed.

After you create a future time label for a view, you can assign it to requests. When the time specified in the time label is reached, the request is completed and closed. See Working with Future Dated Requests.

Creating Time Labels

You create historical and future time labels at the view level.

To create a time label for a view:

  1. Inspect the view that you want to create a time label for. See Inspecting a View.
  2. On the Time Labels tab, click Create.
  3. Enter a name, and optionally a description.
  4. In Class, select Historical or Future.
  5. Select a Type (historical time labels only):
    • Fixed: A specific date and time.
      1. Use the date and time selector to specify a date and time for the time label. You must select a date that is equal or prior to the current date.
      2. Optional: Adjust the time zone for the fixed date and time.
    • Rolling: A rolling period of time based on the calendar year.
  6. For Fixed time periods: Specify a Date and Time for the time label.
    • For Future time labels, specify the date and time that requests will be completed and closed. The date must be greater than or equal to the current date and time.
    • For Historical fixed time labels, specify the date and time that you want to view data from. The date must be earlier than the current date and time.
  7. For Rolling time periods:
    1. Select the Period:

      Note:

      The Fiscal periods are based on the Fiscal Year End Month system setting. See Configuring System Settings.
      • End of Month: the last day of the month
      • End of Quarter: the last day of the quarter in the Gregorian calendar (March 31, June 30, September 30, and December 31)
      • End of Year: the last day of the Gregorian year
      • Fiscal Quarter End: the last day of the Fiscal quarter
      • Fiscal Year End: the last day of the Fiscal year
    2. In Prior to Current, select the number of periods prior to the current period to display data for.

      Tip:

      Examples of Period and Prior to Current settings:
      • End of Month, Prior to Current = 2 for 12/7/22 would be 10/31/22
      • End of Quarter, Prior to Current = 1 for 12/7/22 would be 9/30/22
      • End of Year, Prior to Current = 3 for 12/7/22 would be 12/31/19
      • When Fiscal Year End Month is set to May:
        • Fiscal Quarter End, Prior to Current = 1 for 12/7/22 would be 11/30/22
        • Fiscal Year End, Prior to Current = 2 for 12/7/22 would be 5/31/20
    3. Enter the Time of Day for the time label.
  8. Specify the Time Zone.
  9. Click Save.

    The time label is displayed in Time Labels.

Editing and Deleting Time Labels

To edit a time label, click Edit and adjust any of the parameters above, and then click Save. You cannot edit a future time label that is in use by one or more active requests.

To delete a time label, click the X next to it, and then click Yes to confirm. You cannot delete historical time labels that are in use by viewpoints or future time labels that are in use by one or more active requests.