> ## Documentation Index
> Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://docs.metricanic.com/llms.txt
> Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further.

# Choose dates, filters, and sorting

> Keep report scope consistent, understand late conversions, and isolate the traffic segment you want to compare.

A report is a view of a selected set of traffic. Dates define the time window, filters choose which records belong in the analysis, and grouping decides how to divide the result. Sorting changes the order, not which campaign traffic was originally recorded.

Set the scope before interpreting a difference. A campaign report for yesterday in UTC and one for yesterday in a different timezone can contain different visits even though both controls say “Yesterday.”

## Understand which date receives a conversion

Aggregate reports attribute events to the original visit timestamp. Raw **Events** uses the event's own timestamp.

Consider this flow in UTC:

```text theme={null}
September 10, 23:50 → Visitor arrives
September 11, 00:20 → Purchase event reaches Metricanic
```

After processing, the conversion and its revenue belong to September 10 in the aggregate campaign report. The individual purchase appears on September 11 in the raw **Events** view.

This keeps the conversion result with the traffic that produced it. It also means a past day's revenue can increase when visitors convert later. If you are looking for a specific purchase, start with the raw event's date. If you are evaluating the traffic that generated it, use the visit date.

## Set a fair comparison window

1. Choose the reporting timezone that matches your comparison.
2. Select the date range and apply it.
3. Open one campaign or add a campaign filter.
4. Check the active filter chips and entity status before reading totals.
5. When comparing with an external system, match both its timezone and its date attribution method.

The report timezone determines the boundaries of calendar days and time groupings. A visitor's recorded timezone is a separate traffic characteristic. Grouping visitors by that characteristic does not change the report's date boundary.

For hourly patterns, group by **Hour** to compare hour-of-day buckets. For individual calendar days, use **Date**. **Day of week** combines the same weekday across the selected period. Weekday numbering follows Monday as `1` through Sunday as `7`.

## Filter before drilling into a segment

Suppose a campaign has 1,000 visits, but you want to compare mobile traffic from Canada and the United Kingdom. Use a country inclusion filter for those two countries and a device-type filter for mobile. Then group by **Offer**.

The resulting offer rows describe the selected country and device segment. They should not be compared directly with an unfiltered campaign total as if both represented all 1,000 visits.

| Filter choice            | Practical use                                         |
| ------------------------ | ----------------------------------------------------- |
| **is**                   | Keep one dimension value, such as one offer           |
| **is not**               | Remove one value from the comparison                  |
| **include**              | Keep several selected values                          |
| **exclude**              | Remove several selected values                        |
| Numeric `>`, `=`, or `<` | Keep report rows meeting a supported metric condition |

A metric filter changes which result rows qualify. For example, **Visits > 100** can remove low-volume segments from the result. Remove it when checking whether all campaign traffic is accounted for.

Apply changes after editing the controls. To diagnose an unexpectedly empty result, first remove optional filters rather than changing campaign configuration.

## Check active and archived entities

Entity reports can filter by active or archived status. If an older campaign disappeared from your comparison, check this status filter. Archiving an entity is different from erasing its historical traffic.

Some overview dimensions can include entities or time buckets with zero activity. A zero row tells you there is nothing measured in the current scope. It does not by itself prove that the entity is configured incorrectly.

## Sort for the question you are answering

Click a supported column header to choose the sorting field and direction. Most reports initially sort by **Visits** descending. **Date**, **Month**, and **Day of week** use ascending order by default, while **Hour** starts descending.

For the country example, sorting by Profit identifies the largest contribution or loss. Sorting by ROI highlights efficiency, but check the underlying cost and volume before comparing a small segment with a large one.

Built-in sortable fields are handled by the report query. [Custom metrics](/reports/custom-metrics) sort the rows loaded in the browser. A locally sorted page is not a guaranteed ranking of every row in a larger report.

Raw event views use fixed chronological paging with newest records first. Use the raw view's filters and dates to find a record rather than expecting aggregate sorting behavior there.

## Explain an apparent mismatch

| Symptom                                                      | Check                                          |
| ------------------------------------------------------------ | ---------------------------------------------- |
| Purchase is in Events but absent from today's campaign total | Original visit date                            |
| Yesterday changed after you checked it                       | Later conversions or a cost correction         |
| Two users see different totals                               | Timezone, dates, filters, status, and grouping |
| A country vanished after adding a metric filter              | Whether that row still satisfies the threshold |
| An export contains fewer rows than expected                  | API pagination and the exact requested scope   |

For a full reconciliation workflow, use [Numbers do not match](/troubleshooting/discrepancies).