adding columns with with months -1 using accounting periods

[#1]

Hi all,

Apologies for the very simple question but I really can;t figure how to do this... [:(]

I need to be able to provide a total Outstanding sales value, outstanding sales value for the current month, outstanding sales value in the previous month (backlog) and outstanding sales value from year dot to 2 months ago. I am also using accounting periods instead of calendar months.

I tried using the Today() function to get today's date, but I do not understand how to select the correct dates for the current month. I have an accounting period table which specifies everyday with the Period Name and Period Year to search from but am unable to figure how to say "from this date to that date" using the current date today.. I hope I'm making sense...

Accounting period table

Period Date Period Name Period Year

2009-03-30 April 2010

.

.

2009-04-26 April 2010

2009-04-27 May 2010

.

.

2009-05-28 May 2010

If today was 2009-05-15, I would need to have the columns detailing the total outstanding sales, May 2010 oustanding sales, April 2010 outstanding Sales and up to Mar 2010 outstanding sales.

Any help would be most appreciated.

Thanks

Mike

[#2]

Mike I have used this expression in one of my chart and it is working

suppose i have Receive year as year 2009 and receive month June
and reference year and month is the current year and month,
so this query will go 15 months back till reference year and month.

i hope you got the idea, basically u have to use Addmonths with -ve values

=If( MakeDate([Receive Year],[Receive Month]) > Addmonths(Makedate([Reference Year],[Reference Month]),-15) and
MakeDate([Receive Year],[Receive Month]) <= Makedate([Reference Year],[Reference Month]) ,
Date(NewYearMonth,'MMM-YY') ,null())

Talha