What word can I use to imply that one has almost 'travelled in time' to see past results?
I have a set of sales data. This data has information for orders confirmed on or before "x" date. But there is also a date for the delivery of the goods.
We are targeted each month not on orders placed, but orders delivered. So we are interested in, lets say for 15/08/2019, orders placed by that time that will be delivered in that month.
At the top of my document, I would like something like "Effective Date: dd/mm/yyyy".
This date will show data as it would have appeared at that time, unaffected by anything that has happened since. In this sense, it is almost like looking back in time to see what results would have been shown at that time.
The final result for that month is irrelevant, what is displayed is how the month appeared to be going at that moment in time.
So, I'm looking for a better term than "effective date" that implies that the user inputting the data is looking back in time. Almost like a "date of focus", but more time-travel-y. Effective isn't wrong, but just doesn't feel like enough.
I have tried looking up some terms but can't get the right word. If this makes any sense whatsoever, your help would be much appreciated!
I like "snapshot" as well, which is what @WeatherVane said. While this usage doesn't appear in any dictionary I could find, I can attest that that term is used — metaphorically, if not idiomatically — in business to describe what you're describing.
That said, when I pull up reports at work that show what information we were showing on a particular past date, it'll say "today's date" followed by today's date and say "report date" followed by the date of the past date whose information is being reported on that report.
So, on report printouts themselves, it says "report date" for what you're describing, but if I were to myself explain it to someone, like a new employee I'm training, I might say, "This report is a snapshot of what we were showing as of the report date that appears at the top just under today's date." That's my company's jargon, though. You do it how you like, and that'll be become the jargon of yours.
If you don't like "report date" or "snapshot date," you might try "historical date." At a prior employer, that was the term they used on reports to differentiate that it was not the date the report was printed, like yesterday's if I printed it out yesterday, but rather a snapshot of what information was showing on that past date.