# Trend Analysis

## Details covered in the analysis

A change in the measure's value between periods is categorized as a trend if it equals or exceeds a user-defined threshold percentage. Trends across consecutive periods that move in the same direction are merged into one trend. For example, when analyzing by month, if the measure's value rises in July 2021, August 2021, and September 2021, it is described in the narrative as a single trend from July 2021 to September 2021.

The narrative describes a maximum of three trends: the two most recent trends plus the most significant of all other trends in the series. To focus the analysis on particular periods in the series, filter your data.

Example: Trend analysis of Actual Sales over time by Country, Segment, and Product

The narrative includes:

• An overview that describes up to three changes in the trend of Actual Sales over the time series (rise to fall, fall to level, fall to rise, etc.).

• For each change in trend mentioned in the overview: the overall direction of change, peaks and troughs within the trend, an analysis of the key drivers and offsets by Country, and a drilldown by Segment and Product reporting on the single most significant change at those levels (if one exists).

### Tip

Set the order of dimension drilldown in Step 2 of the NLG Apps wizard.

See Narrative options for further guidance on configuring the narrative.

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## Data requirements

All NLG apps have the same data requirements for field names and formats. See Data requirements for details.

In addition, each app has specific data requirements:

If your data selection and configuration do not meet the requirements, the wizard disables the app and displays a warning:

The requirements for dimensions and measures are:

Minimum

Maximum

One measure and one time dimension*.

One measure, two time dimensions*, and three non-time dimensions.

*Time dimension requirements for each analysis period:

 Analysis period Required fields Month Date or Year + Month Quarter Date or Year + Quarter Year Date or Year

Not all combinations of aggregation and entity types are supported for measures. The Trend Analysis app can analyze the following combinations:

### Note

Entity types and other data attributes are set in Step 2 of the wizard.

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## Narrative options

You can configure these narrative options in Step 3 of the NLG apps wizard:

Use this option to select the period for comparison. The options are Month, Quarter, and Year.

Default: Month

Your selected data must contain the date fields required for the chosen period:

 Period option Required date fields Month Date or Year and Month Quarter Date or Year and Quarter Year Date or Year

In addition, these date fields must be configured as time dimensions.

This option sets the percentage change threshold for identifying trends. The higher the Trend Change percentage, the more significant a change in the measure's value must be to be included in the narrative.

For example, if you set the Trend Change option to 10% and the measure's value changes by at least ±10% between two periods, the app categorizes the change as an upward or downward trend.

Default: 5%

### Note

The narrative describes a maximum of three trends: the two most recent trends plus the most significant of all other trends in the series. To focus the analysis on particular periods in the series, filter your data.

Examples: Time-Based Variance

Assume the Use color for variance values option is ON.