Overview
The Data Warehouse supports both live operational reporting and historical replay through effective-dated CDM views.
To support consistent month-end and period-end reporting, a lightweight Snapshot Reporting approach is being introduced.
This allows the business to:
- reproduce reporting positions retrospectively
- support finance and PMO reporting consistency
- preserve confidence in trend reporting
- distinguish between live operational data and certified reporting outputs
Current reporting challenge
Operational systems are continuously changing.
As projects, people, forecasts, and assignments evolve, live reports may produce different answers when rerun later.
For example:
- a project status may change retrospectively
- a resource assignment may be corrected after month-end
- a forecast value may be updated after reporting close
Without a reporting snapshot approach, it becomes difficult to answer:
“What did the organisation believe at the end of Period 6?”
Existing Data Warehouse capability
The CDM already supports temporal history using:
| Field | Purpose |
|---|---|
ACTIVE_FLAG | Current active row |
CREATED_DATE | Date row became valid |
EXPIRED_DATE | Date row was superseded |
This enables:
- historical replay
- trend analysis
- lifecycle reporting
- “As At” reporting
The Data Warehouse can therefore reconstruct historical operational truth dynamically.
What is a snapshot?
A snapshot is not a duplicate copy of the entire warehouse.
Instead, a snapshot acts as a:
- certified reporting reference point
- period-end reporting context
- governance control for published reporting
Example:
| SNAPSHOT_ID | PERIOD | ASAT_DATE | CREATED |
|---|---|---|---|
| P06_FINAL | 2026-P06 | 2026-03-31 | 2026-04-07 |
This means:
- the business approved the reporting position for Period 6
- reports should reconstruct the warehouse state as it existed on 31-Mar-2026
- the snapshot was formally created on 07-Apr-2026
How snapshot reporting works
Step 1 — Snapshot is selected
A report or process references a snapshot identifier:
P06_FINAL
Step 2 — Snapshot resolves the reporting date
The snapshot identifies the approved reporting date:
ASAT_DATE = 2026-03-31
Step 3 — The warehouse reconstructs the historical state
get.myview automatically runs using:
mode = asat
This reconstructs the operational position that existed at the snapshot date.
Important distinction
Snapshot reporting is not the same as live reporting
| Reporting Type | Purpose |
|---|---|
| Current | Latest operational position |
| History | Full lifecycle and change tracking |
| As At | Replay operational state on a specific date |
| Snapshot | Certified business reporting position |
Benefits of this approach
Consistent reporting
Reports can be rerun later and still produce the same certified reporting position.
Reduced data duplication
The warehouse does not need to create large static copies of all reporting tables every month.
Stronger governance
Snapshots become managed reporting checkpoints rather than uncontrolled spreadsheet extracts.
Preserved operational history
The underlying temporal warehouse remains dynamic and replayable.
Optional approved adjustments
Where necessary, approved overrides or finance adjustments can be stored separately without changing the underlying operational history.
Strategic direction
This approach allows the Data Warehouse to operate as:
- a live operational reporting platform
- a historical replay platform
- a governed reporting certification platform
without reverting to a fully static snapshot-based architecture.