Year to Date (YTD)

Year to Date is used to describe the progression in a data series from the beginning of a 12-month period. Commonly used in Accounting for the P&L, YTD Sales. This applies to shorter time periods, QTD or MTD.

A Year to Date (YTD) data series starts at the beginning point in a 12-month period. This could be from January 1 of the current year in progress until today. Thus, it could describe the 31-day period from January 1 until January 31. YTD could also describe the current Financial Year, which does not necessarily have to start January 1. If the current FY starts July 1, then YTD could equally be applied from July 1 ending after 31 days being July 31. The practical application of using a YTD analysis is to review an interim Profit and Loss statement. A comparison could then be made to the previous year’s Profit and Loss to the same day in that year or prior years. This can be particularly useful for a seasonal business or a business in a sector exposed to the Economic Cycle, such as Consumer Discretionary.