Highlights
- Year to date is the time between the beginning of the year and the current date.
- YTD information is useful for many people inside and outside of the company, including finance teams and investors.
- Depending on the information you need, you may be able to calculate YTD with simple addition.
What does YTD mean?
Year to date or YTD refers to the time between the beginning of the calendar year or fiscal year and the present day. It is a common metric in accounting and bookkeeping, and also useful for analyzing business trends and comparing performance data with competitors or the industry as a whole.
Usually, YTD is used to describe a set of information, such as YTD sales, YTD revenue, or YTD salary.
How is year to date used?
YTD can refer to the calendar year to date or the fiscal year to date. The calendar year to date refers to the time period between January 1 and the current date, and a fiscal year to date refers to the time period between the beginning of the fiscal year and the current date.
Year to date information can be used to understand a company’s earnings, net pay, or investment returns before the year is over. The YTD financial statements can be analyzed to determine the financial health of the business and how it compares to other similar companies.
Who uses year to date?
YTD information is useful for:
- Business owners
- Financial planning and analysis teams
- HR and payroll
- Investors
Business owners
Anyone who wants their company to be successful usually keeps track of YTD information to measure the financial health of the company. This can be useful at any given time, but particularly during unusual circumstances, such as mergers or industry changes.
Financial planning and analysis teams
YTD data is an important component of budgeting and forecasting. FP&A teams can compare YTD expenses to previous years to see if spending is on track or they need to adjust their budgets.
HR and payroll
Knowing how much the company has spent YTD on factors such as gross pay, net pay, deductions, and benefits can help HR and payroll teams make smarter decisions.
Investors
Publicly traded companies can share their YTD data with global finance markets to help investors understand the company’s performance. Investors in smaller businesses are also often interested in YTD information, as it can indicate whether company finances are running smoothly.
How to calculate year to date
In many cases, you can calculate YTD with simple addition. Calculating year to date expenses involves adding up all of the expenses from the beginning of the year until the current day. Finding your YTD profits requires adding up all profits since the start of the year. To get started on either of these figures, refer to your company’s profit and loss statement.
From there, you can compare the current YTD information with data from previous years at the same date.
For more complicated calculations, such as interest or yield figures, you may need to turn to business finance software for exact results.
Year to date example
Let’s say you wanted to determine your company’s fiscal YTD sales. If the fiscal year started on July 1, and the current date is January 15, you would need to add up all of the company’s sales figures between those two dates to find the total YTD sales.
You can then compare the YTD sales with previous years at the same point to see if sales are higher or lower. From there, you can determine the next steps the business should take—if any.
