Last X Months - What is the intended logic?

Geoff Fuller1
Kilo Explorer

‎07-19-2019 05:21 AM

Greetings All,

                I have a question about the definition of Last 3 Months in reporting. I often will create reports that use Resolved Date On This Year/Last Month/This Month, etc. What I found when I used Last 3 Months however, is that the data returned is the Last 3 Months AND current month.

Using 7/19/2019 as a reference point, if I run a report based on Resolved Date On Last 3 Months, I get results from April, May, June and July. The April data starts on the 1st of April and the July data is through to the current date. My expectation would be that Last 3 Months means the last full 3 months. Of note, if you select Last Month, it only gives you June.

I have no issue working around this, but my questions are:

  • OOB, what does ServiceNow truly define Last 3 Months as?
  • What would others expect Last 3 Months to mean?
    • Only the last 3 full months?
    • 3 full months and current month data?
    • Something else?
  • Why would Last Month and Last 3 Months not follow the same behavior.
  • Do other individuals running reports see this same behavior?

My initial reaction to how this is working is that it is not correct. Thoughts?

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Jim Wheeler
Mega Contributor
In response to sachin_namjoshi

‎09-14-2022 10:18 AM

Unfortunately, that page contains several contradictions (first part gives three different descriptions of how a "week" is calculated, in terms of start and end) and things that do not seem accurate.

In this case, the example they give part way through the document for "Last 3 Months" says the following:  "A filter run [on] [Last 3 months] on April 18, would return records from January 1 up until April 15."

The end date in that statement makes no sense. For it to be "last 3 months", it should either be Jan 1 thru March 31 (last 3 calendar months) OR Jan 18 thru April 18 (a rolling 3 months). Their statement would include 3.5 months of data (Jan, Feb, March and half of April). 

MichaelZischeck
Kilo Sage
In response to sachin_namjoshi

‎09-19-2022 01:41 AM

The examples is exactly as Jim explained... you run the filter on April 18 yet it delivers data up to April 15 (which I think is wrong and should be 18). But still: for most last 3 months should mean: last 3 full months... so running the filter on April 18 it should return results from Jan 1 to Mar 31 and nothing else...

 

to circumvent I tend to choose "between" then I select Jan 1 and Mar 31 as dates

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