Derived Metrics
A Derived metric lets you build more complex calculations by combining existing metrics into an arithmetic expression. Unlike a simple Ratio (numerator ÷ denominator), Derived metrics support multi-step formulas such as:
Revenue - Cost(Revenue - Cost) / Revenue(Revenue - Revenue (prior period)) / Revenue (prior period)(Revenue / 5) + 8
A Derived metric is made of two parts:
Derived Components (named building blocks)
An Expression that combines those components (and/or constants) using math operators
Fields
Label (required)
A unique name for this metric across the project.
Description (optional)
What the metric represents and how it should be interpreted.
Type
Select Derived.
Derived Components
A component is a reusable building block defined as:
Component = (existing metric) + optional filters + optional offset window
Each component has an Alias (name) that you’ll reference in the expression editor.
Alias (required)
A short, descriptive name like revenue, cost, prior_revenue, completed_orders, etc.
Select Metric (required)
Choose any existing metric (simple or advanced) to use as the base for this component.
Filter (optional)
Scopes this component to a subset of rows (e.g., only status = completed, only country = US). These filters apply only to this component, not to the whole derived metric.
Offset Window
Each derived component can optionally apply an Offset Window to shift the metric in time before it’s used in the derived expression. This is commonly used for “previous period” comparisons (e.g., prior week/month/year).
How to configure
Enter an offset amount (number)
Choose a time unit: Seconds, Minutes, Hours, Days, Weeks, Months, Quarters, Years
What it does
The component is evaluated at a time shifted by the offset window, relative to the query’s time grain/date range.
Example use cases:
Revenue (current) vs Revenue (offset 1 Month) for month-over-month change
Expression Editor
The Expression Editor is a tree builder that defines the math for the derived metric. Each node in the expression can be one of:
1) Component
References one of your defined component aliases (a metric with optional filters/offset).
2) Number
A constant numeric value used in calculations (e.g., 5, 0.2, 1000).
3) Expression
A nested expression made from two sub-expressions and an operator.
Operators
Add (+)
Subtract (-)
Multiply (×)
Divide (/)
Because the expression is built as a tree, parentheses / order-of-operations are handled by how you nest expressions.
Reset Use Reset to clear and rebuild the expression.
Metric-level Filters (optional)
The Filters section below the Expression applies to the entire derived metric (i.e., it scopes the final result). Use this when the filtering should affect all components consistently.
If you need different filters for different parts of the calculation, apply filters on the individual components instead.
Fill Missing Dates and Nulls (optional)
For advanced time-series behavior, you can configure:
Fill Nulls: replace null metric values with a chosen numeric value (commonly
0)Fill Missing Dates: join to a time spine so the metric returns a value for every date in the requested range
These are especially useful when charting derived metrics over time and you want consistent output even when some periods have no rows.
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