Q16. A financial analyst wants to track the monthly sales performance of a company over the past two years. They want to identify any seasonal trends or anomalies in the sales data.
How would you create a time series analysis chart in SAP SAC, and what features would you include to highlight trends and anomalies?
Ans: We can create a time series analysis chart in SAC using line charts with enhancements such as forecasting, to track monthly sales performance over the past two years and help the financial analysts identify the seasonal trends and spot anomalies via the following ways:
Here’s how we can achieve it:
The best chart type we can opt for is a time series line chart. Here’s how we can opt for it:
– Open the story and insert the line chart. Set up axes such as x-axis – time dimension and y-axis – measures. We can use time/date on the x-axis and sales metrics on the y-axis.
– Now, we can filter based on period. Apply the date filter via story filter or input control and show only the past two years, as required.
We can highlight the trends and anomalies by using:
– Trend Line to smooth the fluctuations and reveal the overall direction of the sales.
– Forecasting for predictive features which helps identify if the anomalies are short-term or part of a larger pattern.
– We can use reference lines for tracking monthly sales to benchmark performance and target values, to help visually flag under or over-performing months.
– Variance Indicators or dynamic variance text can also be used for month-over-month change and year-over-year change.
– Using conditional formatting or threshold alerts to highlight the anomalies.
– Considering tooltips and drill down, if needed.
These are some of the best ways to let users explore the data and draw actionable insights.
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