Behavior of plan comparison in Waterfall chart when comparing plans with different spans

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The waterfall visual highlights the “puts and takes” of variance when you select a comparison plan, target, or actuals. The left bar represents your current plan, while the right bar shows the comparator (plan, target, or actuals), with colors indicating variance status (blue = under target, orange = over target).

When comparing two plans with different tenures, the system bases the comparison on the selected plan year—First Year or Second Year—rather than the year chosen in the Date Range field.

Consider we have two plans: a 2‑year plan that starts in 2025 and a 1‑year plan that starts in 2026. If we try to compare both years of the 2‑year plan against the 1‑year plan, the system returns “No comparison data available.” This occurs because the 1‑year plan lacks data for the second year, so the comparison cannot be generated.

Example of the 2 plans as below:

• FY2025 Budget (2 year plan) - 2 year budget plan starting in 2025.
• FY2026 Budget - 1 year plan starting in 2026

When a two‑year comparison is added on the Summary tab, the system displays the message “No comparison data available.”

When a user picks First Year for the current plan "FY2025 Budget (2‑year plan)" and compare with "FY2026 Budget" plan, the system compares the plans based on each plan’s start year—even if those start years differ. This is the same behavior seen on the Expenses page when using the Plan Start Year option. Consequently, the Range field shows FY2025, as illustrated in the screenshot.

When a user tries to compare the second year of "FY2025 Budget (2year plan)" with "FY2026 Budget", the system cannot display the comparison because the FY2026 plan lacks data for that second year. Even though the UI shows FY2026 in the Range field (see the screenshot), the comparison fails due to the missing data.