# Explain a change in a number

> Ask Golden why a measure moved between two periods and get a written narrative of what drove it, which you can re-anchor to different periods or save as a dashboard.

Analyze · 3 min read · Updated 2026-08-27

Seeing that revenue fell is the easy part. Explaining a change asks the follow-up for you: Golden compares two periods, works out which dimensions and members moved the total, and writes it up in prose alongside the chart.

## Two ways in

- From a chart - click a mark to pin its tooltip, then click the "Why did this change?" action on it.
- From the analyst pane - click the "Explain this change" button and Golden picks the most recent period pair to compare.

## Reading the narrative

The panel opens with a headline naming the two periods being compared and the size of the move. Under it, a "What drove it" section breaks the change down into the contributions that made it up, naming both the dimensions involved and the specific members - a region, a sub-category - that carried the movement.

## Compare different periods

The two periods are dropdowns, not fixed. Change either one and Golden re-runs the explanation anchored on your choice, keeping the other side as it was. That makes it cheap to ask the same question of a different comparison - this month against last, or this month against the same month a year ago.

## Keep the answer

- Open in fullscreen - present the narrative on its own, at a readable size. Press Escape to come back.
- Save as dashboard - compose the narrative and its supporting charts into a new dashboard sheet. You get a "Saved to a new dashboard" confirmation.

> **Note:** Save as dashboard needs the explanation to have finished computing. Click it too early and Golden tells you it is "Still working out what changed - try again in a moment."

> **Tip:** The saved dashboard tiles stay live. Clicking "Why did this change?" on one of its charts, or changing a period dropdown on one tile, re-anchors the narrative tile beside it rather than leaving a stale story next to fresh charts.

An explanation is a decomposition of your own numbers, not a claim about cause. It tells you which parts of the data account for the move; whether those parts caused it is still your call.

Source: https://goldenanalytics.com/docs/explain-a-change