Hello,

And thank you in advance for your help.

Using Cognos 11.2.4, I have a dashboard based on an SSAS cube that displays several graphical indicators for the current day, as well as the same indicators for a reference day selected via a filter.

I would like this reference date to be automatically set by default to the same day of the previous year (but still be editable).

How can I do this?

Thank you and have a great day!

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Cedric Waras
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Hi Cedric, 

You can use a calculation to convert the date to text and replace the date _add_years(current_date)  by a static term (e.g. 'today - 1 year'). Then you can save the dashboard with a filter on this term for the calculation. There are multiple variations of this idea, all based on a fix term for the required relative date. 

Another approach is not to use a dashboard filter but a measure filter of the data module, according to the "relative date calendar":

https://www.ibm.com/docs/en/cognos-analytics/12.1.x?topic=modules-relative-date-analysis

Best regards, 

Philipp 

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Philipp Hornung
Product Owner & BI Manager
Techniker Krankenkasse
Hamburg Germany
#IBMChampion
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Hi Philip,

First of all, thank you for your reply and your time.

As you yourself mentioned, the proposed solution involves a fixed reference date, which must remain modifiable.

Furthermore, we're not using a data module; we're directly accessing the SSAS cube (real-time). Therefore, the solution of filtering the data module's measurement based on the "relative date calendar" doesn't seem applicable.

Thank you.

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Cedric Waras
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Original Message:
Sent: Tue January 27, 2026 02:43 AM
From: Philipp Hornung
Subject: Cognos 11.2.4 Dashboard - Filter default date

Hi Cedric, 

You can use a calculation to convert the date to text and replace the date _add_years(current_date)  by a static term (e.g. 'today - 1 year'). Then you can save the dashboard with a filter on this term for the calculation. There are multiple variations of this idea, all based on a fix term for the required relative date. 

Another approach is not to use a dashboard filter but a measure filter of the data module, according to the "relative date calendar":

https://www.ibm.com/docs/en/cognos-analytics/12.1.x?topic=modules-relative-date-analysis

Best regards, 

Philipp 

------------------------------
Philipp Hornung
Product Owner & BI Manager
Techniker Krankenkasse
Hamburg Germany
#IBMChampion
------------------------------