Date ranges in dashboards

Overview

When you add an analysis to a dashboard, its date ranges can be overwritten by the dashboard or widget date range. This article explains how overwriting works:

• Analyses can contain nested date ranges: when a condition uses another analysis (a segmentation, aggregate, or expression), that inner analysis has its own date range.
• You can choose to overwrite the main date range only, both the main and nested date ranges, or neither - each combination behaves differently.
• Profile filters are not treated as nested by default — if the conditions inside are event-based, their date ranges are treated as the main analysis date range, not nested.
• Dashboard date ranges cannot overwrite segmentation widgets added directly to the dashboard; segmentations used as conditions inside a metric are treated as nested date ranges and can be overwritten.

Date range types in analyses and dashboards

Main analysis date range

While creating an analysis, you can apply date filters. The image below presents a preview of a funnel configuration in the funnel creator, the area marked with a red rectangle presents the funnel's main filter.

If you apply a profile filter on your analysis and the conditions inside the profile filter are based only on events, the date ranges of those events are treated as the main analysis date range.

Nested date range

A nested date range is the date range of an analysis used as a condition inside another analysis, for example, when analysis conditions include an aggregate, segmentation, or expression, that inner analysis has its own date range. The same applies when a profile filter is applied on top of the main analysis: if the profile filter contains another analysis (a segmentation, aggregate, or expression), its date range is also considered nested.

The exception is event-based conditions inside a profile filter: if the profile filter contains events with a visible date range, those are treated as the main date range, not nested. See the note in Date range dependencies for details.

In the image below, the nested date ranges are marked with a red rectangle.

Dashboard date range

The image below presents a dashboard preview in the editing mode. The area marked with a red rectangle contains a date range for the dashboard:

The dashboard date range applies to all widgets on the dashboard at once. When set, it overwrites the main date range of each analysis where Allow overwriting analysis' main time filter is enabled, and also the nested date ranges where Allow overwriting all nested time filters is also enabled.

Widget date range

The widget date range is configured per widget in the widget's Data settings panel, in the Widget date range field. Unlike the dashboard date range, which applies to all widgets on the dashboard, the widget date range overwrites the date range only for the specific widget where it is set.

The widget date range works the same way as the dashboard date range: when set, it overwrites the main date range of the analysis where Allow overwriting analysis' main time filter is enabled, and also the nested date ranges where Allow overwriting all nested time filters is also enabled.

If a dashboard date range is also defined, it takes priority — the widget date range is ignored. The widget date range is applied only when no dashboard date range is set.

Date range dependencies

• When an analysis is added to a dashboard, the results of the analysis are immediately presented on the dashboard. The system returns results for the analysis based on the time range taken from the analysis.
• If you want to restrict the data shown on the dashboard to a certain period, you can define a time range through the Dashboard date range option. However, if the date range selected for the dashboard and the date range in the analysis' filters (both main and nested) don't overlap, the analysis may present wrong results or no results at all. To handle this, enable the Allow overwriting analysis' main time filter or Allow overwriting all nested time filters options described below.
• In each analysis, you can enable overwriting the date range of analysis added to the dashboard with the dashboard's date range or your own. The image and the table below explain the behavior of the overwriting options and their impact on date ranges of analyses added to the dashboard:
  
  The dashboard date range cannot overwrite the date range of a segmentation widget added directly to the dashboard. When you edit such a widget, the Allow overwriting time filters checkboxes are not available, which means the dashboard date range has no effect on it.
  This does not apply to segments used as conditions inside a metric or other analysis. A segment used as a nested condition is treated as a nested date range and can be overwritten when Allow overwriting all nested time filters (option B) is enabled.
  

Example

Overwriting analysis' main date range only

Setup:

• A metric counting page.visit events in the last 30 days is added to a dashboard (assuming current date is 7 Mar, 2024).
• The metric doesn't contain any nested date ranges.
• Both Allow overwriting analysis' main time filter and Allow overwriting all nested time filters are enabled.
• No dashboard date range or Widget date range is defined.

Result: The metric uses its own date range (last 30 days), because no overwriting date range is defined.

To overwrite the main date range, define a date range using one of the following methods:

• Dashboard date range: Set to the time period you want to analyze (in this example, 1 Feb, 2024 – 29 Feb, 2024). This overwrites the main date range for this metric and all other analyses on the dashboard where Allow overwriting analysis' main time filter is enabled.
• Widget date range: Set directly on this widget. This overwrites the main date range only for this specific metric.

Result: The metric's date range is overwritten and results are shown for the defined period.

Overwriting a nested date range

Goal: Show today's transaction.charge events, but only for customers who are making their first-ever transaction today.

Setup:

• A metric is added to a dashboard. The metric counts transaction.charge events where the transaction timestamp equals the value returned by a nested aggregate.
• The nested aggregate finds the timestamp of the first transaction.charge event in a customer's history. The aggregate's own date range is Lifetime.
• The metric's main date range is Last 30 days.

  

• The dashboard date range is set to today.

What happens when both options are enabled:

If both Allow overwriting analysis' main time filter and Allow overwriting all nested time filters are enabled, the dashboard date range overwrites both the metric's main date range and the aggregate's date range to today.

The aggregate no longer finds the customer's first-ever transaction — it finds the first transaction within today's range instead. This breaks the metric in two ways:

• Returning customer with a transaction today: the aggregate returns today's first transaction timestamp instead of the first-ever timestamp. The metric condition matches today's transaction and the customer appears in results — incorrectly, because their first-ever transaction was not today.
• Customer with no transactions today: the aggregate finds nothing and returns null — the metric returns null and the customer is excluded from results entirely.

Correct approach — overwrite main only:

Enable only Allow overwriting analysis' main time filter. Leave Allow overwriting all nested time filters disabled.

• The metric's main date range is overwritten to today → only today's transactions are evaluated.
• The aggregate's date range stays on Lifetime → it still finds the absolute first transaction in the customer's history.

Result: The metric returns today's transaction.charge events only for customers whose first-ever transaction occurred today.

Overwriting date ranges in a profile filter

This example shows how date ranges inside a profile filter interact with the overwriting options, depending on the type of conditions inside it.

Scenario A: Profile filter contains an event

Setup:

• A metric counting transaction.charge events is added to a dashboard.
• The metric has a Change conditions filter applied. The filter contains a newsletter.click event with a fixed date range (1 Oct 2024, 00:00 – 31 Oct 2024, 23:59), visible when you open the filter.

  

• Only Allow overwriting analysis' main time filter is enabled.
• The dashboard date range is set to 1 Jan 2025 – 31 Jan 2025.

Result: The newsletter.click event date range inside the filter is treated as a main time filter. It is overwritten by the dashboard date range: 1 Jan 2025 – 31 Jan 2025.

Scenario B: Profile filter contains a segment or aggregate

Setup:

• A metric counting transaction.charge events is added to a dashboard.
• The metric has a Change conditions filter applied. The filter contains a segment condition.

  

• Only Allow overwriting analysis' main time filter is enabled.
• The dashboard date range is set to 1 Jan 2025 – 31 Jan 2025.

Result: Segment and aggregate conditions inside a profile filter are treated as nested date ranges. Allow overwriting analysis' main time filter alone does not overwrite them. To overwrite these date ranges, also enable Allow overwriting all nested time filters.