Skip to main content
abstract_appreciatora076
Level 1
September 22, 2026
Question

CJA Data Mismatch: Month of Year Dimension vs. Rolling Date Rows

Hi,

I am seeing a data discrepancy in CJA when building a 12-month YoY chart inside a panel locked to "This Month" (September 2026).

Identical months (e.g., July, August, Sep) show completely different numbers for the People metric depending on the table setup:

Setup A: Generic Month of Year dimension in rows + custom Jan 1, 2026 - Dec 31, 2026 column override. (shows 9.9K people for Aug)

Setup B: Rolling date ranges in rows (This Month, 1 Month Ago, 2 Months Ago) + custom Jan 1, 2026 - Dec 31, 2026 column override. (Shows 6.8K people for Aug)

Why does the time-parting dimension (Setup A) data mismatch with that of the relative date components (Setup B)?

3 replies

Prasanth
Prasanth
Level 2
September 24, 2026

Hi ​@abstract_appreciatora076 ,

The root cause comes down to Panel Scope Filtering vs. Column Override Precedence.

Root Cause Analysis

Setup A: Time-Parting Dimension (Month of Year)

  • Panel Constraint: The panel is hard-locked to "This Month" (September 2026).

  • How CJA processes this:

    1. CJA first filters the entire panel population to events that occurred in September 2026.

    2. Next, the column date override (Jan 1, 2026 – Dec 31, 2026) expands the time window for the column.

    3. However, the time-parting dimension (Month of Year = August) evaluates people who had hits in August 2026 AND were also qualified under the panel scope (or visited in September 2026) because of how CJA evaluates non-date dimensions across person-level metrics like People.

    4. The column date override forces CJA to pull all historical hits for those specific people across the entire year of 2026, leading to deduplicated/expanded counting (9.9K).

Setup B: Relative Date Components in Rows (1 Month Ago)

  • How CJA processes this:

    1. The row component is an explicit date range component (1 Month Ago = August 1–31, 2026).

    2. Date range components placed in table rows act as hard event-level filters. They override the panel date for those specific row hits.

    3. The metric (People) counts unique individuals who had active events strictly between August 1 and August 31, 2026 (6.8K).

    4. Because 1 Month Ago is an explicit date filter, it cleanly isolates the exact event hits for August 2026 without panel-level leakage.

Recommended Best Practice

For accurate YoY or multi-month trend reporting inside a panel locked to a specific date:

  1. Use explicit relative Date Ranges in Rows (Setup B): Always use component date ranges (e.g., This Month, 1 Month Ago, 12 Months Ago) in table rows rather than time-parting dimensions like Month of Year.

  2. Unlock the Panel Date: If you prefer using time-parting dimensions (Month of Year), set the overall Panel Date Range to the full period (e.g., This Year or Last 12 Months) instead of locking the panel to This Month.

Translate
    abstract_appreciatora076Author
    Level 1
    September 30, 2026

    Hi Prashant, thanks for reply. For your recommended practice 1, We can not use 1 months ago, 2 months ago date ranges as we need to display exact month name in our visualization for stakeholders. We also tried your second suggestion and still getting the same data discrepancy. 

    Translate
    Prasanth
    Prasanth
    Level 2
    October 1, 2026

    Try these solutions.

    Solution A: Rename Custom Date Ranges (Recommended)

    You can use explicit Date Ranges and still display clean, stakeholder-friendly month names (e.g., "August 2026", "September 2026").

    1. In the left component rail, create a Custom Date Range for each specific month (e.g., set Start: 2026-08-01, End: 2026-08-31).

    2. Title the component August 2026 (or whatever exact string your stakeholders require).

    3. Drag these custom date range components into the Rows of your Freeform Table.

    4. Do not apply date overrides to the metric column. Set the Panel date to This Year (or cover the full multi-month window).

    Why this works: Custom date range components act as strict, un-inflated event boundaries (giving you the accurate 6.8K count) while displaying your custom title directly in the table and visualizations.

    Solution B: Use the Native Month Dimension (Not Month of Year)

    Ensure you are using the correct native date dimension:

    • Month of Year (Avoid for this): A time-parting dimension that groups hits by month number/name regardless of year boundary integrity when paired with overrides.

    • Month (Use this): The native date granularity dimension in CJA (e.g., Aug 2026, Sep 2026).

    1. Set your Panel Date Range to Jan 1, 2026 – Dec 31, 2026 (or your desired 12-month period).

    2. Drag the native Month dimension into the rows.

    3. Remove all column-level date overrides on the People metric.

    Translate
    Terms & ConditionsAccessibility statement

    Loading footer...