Choosing the period
The period control sits in the middle of the toolbar in Reports, Portfolio and the Journal:
◀ March 2026 ▶The period is shared: change it on one screen and the others follow. It is remembered between launches.
The label always shows real dates
Section titled “The label always shows real dates”Whatever you choose, the label names the actual dates, so a preset is never ambiguous:
| Period | Label |
|---|---|
| One calendar month | March 2026 |
| One calendar quarter | Q1 2026 |
| One calendar year | 2026 |
| Several whole months | Oct 2025 – Mar 2026 |
| Anything else | 3 Mar 2026 – 18 Mar 2026 |
| No limits | All Time |
Presets
Section titled “Presets”Click the label to open the period popover.
| Preset | Dates it covers | Shortcut |
|---|---|---|
| This Month | The current calendar month. | ⌘T |
| Last Month | The previous calendar month. | |
| Last 3 / 6 / 12 Months | The current month plus the 2, 5 or 11 months before it. On 18 March, Last 3 Months is 1 January – 31 March. | |
| This Quarter | The current calendar quarter. | |
| Year to Date | 1 January through today. | ⇧⌘Y |
| This Year | The whole current calendar year, including the months still to come. | ⌘Y |
| Last Year | The previous calendar year. | |
| All Time | No date limits at all. | ⌘0 |
A checkmark shows the active preset.
Presets move with the calendar. If you leave the app on This Month and open it next month, it shows the new month. The same goes for Last 3 Months, Year to Date and the rest.
Under the presets, a row of buttons with the last six years that have transactions in your ledger. One click shows that whole year.
Stepping: ◀ and ▶
Section titled “Stepping: ◀ and ▶”The arrows (or ⌘[ and ⌘], View ▸ Time ▸ Previous / Next Period) move the period by its own length: a month moves by a month, a quarter by a quarter, Last 6 Months by six months, a custom range of 10 days by 10 days.
Two details:
- Stepping pins the period. After stepping from This Month to March 2026, the period is March 2026 and stays that way tomorrow and next month. Choose a preset again to go back to a moving period.
- Year to Date and All Time cannot be stepped; the arrows are disabled.
Custom range
Section titled “Custom range”In the popover, Custom Range has a From and a To date and an Apply button. Both dates are inclusive: from 1 March to 15 March includes everything dated on the 15th. The fields start with the dates of the period you are looking at.
Fava’s time syntax
Section titled “Fava’s time syntax”The text field at the bottom of the popover accepts the same expressions as Fava’s time filter. Type one and press Return:
| Expression | Meaning |
|---|---|
2026 |
The year 2026 |
2026-03 |
March 2026 |
2026-Q1 |
First quarter of 2026 |
2026-W10 |
Week 10 of 2026 |
2026-03-02 |
A single day |
2025-11 - 2026-02 |
November 2025 through February 2026 |
year-1 - year |
Last year and this year |
month-3 - month |
The last three months plus the current one |
fy2026 |
Fiscal year 2026, if your ledger sets a fiscal year end |
If the text cannot be understood, a red message says so and nothing changes. The result becomes a fixed range: it does not move with the calendar.
How the period affects each screen
Section titled “How the period affects each screen”- Income Statement: only what happened inside the period. Income and expenses from before are left out.
- Balance Sheet and Trial Balance: balances at the end of the period. Everything from before the period is carried in as an opening balance, so assets are what you really had on the last day.
- Portfolio: your holdings as of the last day of the period; the subtitle says “As of …”. Its charts cover the period.
- Journal: the entries dated inside the period, exactly as written. No opening balances appear here.
With All Time there is no carrying over: every screen shows everything.