Build a Year-over-Year Trend Report

Compare this year’s actuals against the prior year month by month using fixed time elements in OfficeConnect.
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A year-over-year trend report shows how each month compares to the same month last year — useful for spotting seasonal patterns and measuring real growth. OfficeConnect’s time elements let you pin both years in the same report.

What you’ll build: A report with 12 months of current-year actuals alongside 12 months of prior-year actuals, plus a YoY variance row.

What you’ll need:

  • OfficeConnect connected to an Adaptive Planning tenant with at least two full years of actuals
  • Familiarity with adding elements (Add Elements) and time contexts (Time and Contexts)

Step 1 — Set up current-year monthly columns

1
Open Excel and activate OfficeConnect Open Excel and click the OfficeConnect tab. Sign in if prompted.
2
Add your Actuals version Click B1. In the Reporting pane, expand Versions and drag your Actuals version into B1. This version applies to all columns that share row 1.
3
Add current-year monthly time elements Click B2. In the Reporting pane, expand Time → Months and find January of the current year (e.g., Jan 2026). Drag it into B2. Continue across row 2 — C2 through M2 — adding Feb 2026 through Dec 2026. You should have 12 monthly time elements across row 2.

Step 2 — Set up prior-year monthly columns

4
Add prior-year Actuals version Click N1. Drag your Actuals version into N1. (It’s the same version — the time elements in row 2 control which year’s data loads.)
5
Add prior-year monthly time elements Click N2. Drag Jan 2025 into N2. Continue across — O2 through Y2 — adding Feb 2025 through Dec 2025.

Step 3 — Add account rows

6
Add your primary account Click A3. In the Reporting pane, expand Accounts and drag your key account (e.g., Revenue) into A3.
7
Populate the data row Click B3. OfficeConnect formulas reference the version in row 1 and the time in row 2, so B3 returns Jan 2026 Actuals for Revenue. Copy B3 across to Y3 — each cell picks up the correct month and year from its column.
8
Add remaining account rows Copy row 3 down for each additional account. Add more accounts to column A as needed.

Step 4 — Add YoY variance

9
Add a variance section header In column Z row 1, type YoY Variance. Leave Z2 empty.
10
Add monthly variance formulas

In B4 (one row below your last account row, or in a dedicated variance row), enter:

=B3-N3

This subtracts the prior-year January value from the current-year January value. Copy across to M4. Each cell compares the same calendar month between the two years.

11
Add a percentage YoY row In row 5, enter =B3/N3-1 in B5 and copy across to M5. Format this row as percentage. This gives you the YoY growth rate for each month.

Step 5 — Refresh and verify

12
Refresh Click Refresh in the OfficeConnect ribbon. Both years of data populate. Check that December 2025 (your last prior-year column) and December 2026 (your last current-year column) show the expected values.

Tip: To make column headers show as “Jan 26 / Jan 25” instead of the full OfficeConnect element name, add a row above row 2 with custom Excel text labels. OfficeConnect doesn’t require headers to be in row 1 — the element formula just needs to be in a cell the data rows reference.

Next steps