The Plan vs actual section answers “how are we doing period by period”: metrics as rows, periods as columns, and next to them the target from the project plan and a forecast of reaching it.
What you see here
A table. On the left are pinned columns that stay put while you scroll:
- Metric — the name from the project’s metric catalogue.
- Total — the value for the whole window of the section. This is recalculated over the entire period, not a sum of the columns: for rates, shares and costs, adding up weeks would produce a falsehood.
- Selected — the same thing, but over the stretch of columns you chose yourself (see below).
- Plan — the target for this metric from the chosen plan, with the plan’s period named.
Then come the periods: weeks, months, days — whatever is chosen under Grouping. By default the most recent period stands first, right after the pinned columns.
For the current, unfinished period the column header carries the share of time elapsed — for
example · 43%. An incomplete column must not read as a failure.
Below the number there may be a second line — the forecast of plan completion as a percentage of the target.
Set it up for your question
The section toolbar sits above the table. In the top row:
- Period — pills and a calendar. The set of pills here is longer than the report’s: a table
by weeks needs windows such as
12wor12m. As soon as you change the grouping, the section moves to its own window and stops following the report’s period. - View — columns, units, height, heat map and confidence (covered below).
- Plan — the list of the project’s plans; each label carries its period. No plan removes the plan column and the forecast.
- Metrics — which rows the table has.
- ··· — rename the section, duplicate it, move it up or down, delete it, and Use report period if the section has gone off on its own.
The second row holds Grouping (by day, week, month, quarter, year) and the section Filter. A condition that came from the report toolbar is marked with a From report pill.
Choose the rows
Press Metrics: the Show column ticks the metrics that become rows, the Heat map column ticks the ones that will be coloured by dynamics. In the Display order block the rows are arranged with the arrows. Edits are applied with Apply; Default set restores the composition KO suggests itself.
See the metrics as lines
The table holds the numbers but not the shape of the change: 8% growth a month and a one-off spike in a single column look the same. Click the coloured dot in front of a metric name — it becomes a line on the panel to the right of the table; click again to remove it. The chart icon that appears at the right edge of the name column when you hover a row does the same. The selection is stored in the report, like the section’s other settings.
The lines follow the period columns, always left to right in time — even when the table has the newest periods first. Total, Selected and Plan are not points on the line: they are roll-ups, not moments in time. The colour of a line is the metric’s colour from the project catalogue, the same one as the dot in the table; a metric derived from other metrics (cost per lead, conversion rate) is drawn dashed.
In the panel header:
- Scale — how to fit numbers of different orders on one screen.
- Auto — keeps absolute values while the metrics are of one kind and differ by no more than an order of magnitude; otherwise it switches to the index.
- Index — every line starts at 100% in its own first period with data and shows the growth from there. That is how spend in thousands of euros and a dozen leads can be read side by side. The header says which period is taken as 100%, and the tooltip puts the original number next to the percentage.
- Absolute — a single axis in the metrics’ own units. Fine when the metrics are comparable; with a tenfold difference the smaller line flattens onto zero.
- Percentages — conversion rates, ROMI — go to the right-hand axis in any mode: on one scale with counts and euros they mean nothing.
- Current period — show the unfinished period. By default it is left off the line: the period is not over, its point always sits below the others, and that would read as a drop.
- Confidence, the toggle under View, works here too: in the “Show the range” position a pale band follows the line — the confidence interval of the number. Where the number rests on enough data the band collapses onto the line; where data is thin it widens, and you can see that a “drop” fits inside the uncertainty. A number known only as a bound (“it will not get cheaper”) has no band: its second edge does not exist.
- Placement — the panel sits beside the table or across the full width below it. Beside the table a line is checked against its row without looking away; below it the panel is wider and single periods stay apart — better when there are many columns or several lines.
- Clear — remove every line; the panel closes and the table takes the full width.
On a narrow screen the panel moves below the table in any case: there is no room for it alongside.
Choose the stretch for “Selected”
Click one period header — that is the start of the stretch; click a second — the end. The Selected column shows the value across the chosen columns, and the stretch itself is outlined. Clear selection removes it; the column itself is switched on and off under View.
This is how you check things that do not match the window: a monthly plan against a 12-week window, a holiday stretch, the gap between campaign launches.
What View configures
- Columns — whether to show Total, Selected and the plan forecast, and in which order the periods run (Newest periods first).
- Units — where to show the currency and the percent sign: next to the metric name, only in the summary columns, or in every cell. In a table of a hundred numbers, a sign in every cell gets in the way of comparing, which is why this is a choice and not a constant.
- Table height — by content, a third, a half or the full screen. A year by days would otherwise stretch the page.
- Heat map — a gradient or bars, or off.
- Confidence — how to mark numbers calculated on a small volume (see below).
The section’s settings are stored in the report, not in your browser: everyone who opens the report sees them.
How to read it
The heat map runs along the row: the periods of one metric are compared with each other. Saturation is the share of the row’s maximum. For metrics where less is better (spend, cost per lead) the scale is inverted. A zero in a formula metric stays out of the scale: for cost per lead, zero means “there were no leads”, not “cheap”.
The completion forecast is coloured by the same better/worse rule, with a dead zone around the target: a deviation within ±10% is not coloured, so the table does not flicker on noise.
The plan’s period and the window must be comparable. If the plan is set for a month and you are looking at weeks, the completion percentage is not shown — a note with the plan’s period stands instead. The targets themselves stay visible: it may be the plan that is set up differently from the way you are looking.
A tilde before a number — an approximate value, a bound instead of a measurement: there was spend but no leads, so “cost per lead is no better than …”. A dot at the edge of the cell — the number was calculated on a handful of events, and the tooltip shows the interval. Both modes are switched under View, item Confidence; the third position there is “Show the range”: the cell then carries the interval itself instead of the number (“95–1,382 €”), and on the chart a band follows the line (see above). Approximate values stay out of the heat map and out of exports — in a file they would be indistinguishable from exact ones.
– instead of a number — there is nothing to calculate the metric from in this project: it
has a definition but no data behind it.
If there are no numbers
- No data for this period — the window is empty. Take a longer period, change the grouping or drop conditions in the Filter.
- No metrics selected — there are no rows; tick metrics under Metrics.
- Nothing to calculate this metric from — the button leads to the Metrics area of the project settings.
- The plan is not in the list — plans are set in the project settings; until then the section works as an ordinary table of actuals, simply without the plan and forecast columns.
What’s next to this
- How a report works — the report’s period and filter, from which the section takes its defaults.
- The Metrics section — the same numbers as cards, with the previous period and a chart.