A period other than the one the title reports
period-label-conflicton by defaultJapanese / English
Not the title's period: Q3 in a Q2 release, tax year 2025 in a 2026 statement
Example
How to fix
Correct the period name to the one in the title. If it is a period being compared with, say so ("a year earlier", "prior year").
Why it matters
When a release titled "Second Quarter Results" heads its table "Q3 FY2027", the reader has to ask which period the figures are for. It happens when last period's release is copied and one label is not updated, or when a table reused every quarter keeps its old heading. The period the title (the first line) names together with a results word ("Results", "Earnings") is the document's period: a quarter, a half or a fiscal year (Q2, first half, FY2026, fiscal year ending March 31, 2027). A kind the title does not name is taken from a "Reporting period:" line at the top. After that, a period of the same kind that differs is reported where the text speaks of the current results: in a table heading cell, and in a sentence or heading with "results" or "this quarter". A cell, sentence or section heading with a word for a comparison or a later period ("prior year", "a year earlier", "compared with", "forecast", "outlook") is not compared, and neither is a period written next to the document's own (| FY2025 | FY2026 |). A document whose title names its year with a marker ("Tax Year 2026", "the 2026 tax year"), such as an annual tax statement, is read even when it is not a results release, and a year with the same marker that differs anywhere in the body ("tax year 2025") is reported.
What it does not flag
A document whose title has no results word and period name is not read. A period in a cell, sentence or section with a word for a comparison or a later period ("prior", "previous", "a year earlier", "compared with", "forecast", "outlook", "expect", "next year"), and one written next to the document's own period, are not compared. A quarter or half before the document's (Q1 in a six-month release) may be a part of the period and is reported only with a word for the current period ("this quarter"). A fiscal year named by its end date and one named by its start (2027年3月期 and 2026年度) are not compared with each other. In a document whose title names a tax year, a year without the same marker ("compared with 2025", "in 2025"), and one in a sentence, cell or section with a comparison word ("prior year", "last year", "or earlier", "carried forward"), are not compared. "For the year 2026" is not read as a tax year: annual reports use it for any year.
Turning it off or relaxing it
Technical details
- Layer
- L3
- Status
- stable
- Severity
- warning
- Languages
- Japanese and English
- Suited to
- business, technical, blog, legal, docs, academic, literature, speech
Levels
Set a level for this rule under rules in chaff.yaml. With nothing set, it runs at the level its genre gives it (see By genre below).
| strict | error |
|---|---|
| normal | warning |
| relaxed | info |
This rule has no limit to count to. A level sets how a finding is marked: relaxed keeps the finding and marks it a step lower.
By genre
- Runs by default in
- technical/spec, technical/readme, blog/tech, blog/essay, blog/owned-media, business/proposal, business/report, business/email, business/press-release, business/meeting-notes, legal/contract, legal/statute, legal/judgment, legal/patent, docs/manual, docs/faq, docs/glossary, academic/paper, speech/address, speech/transcript
- Turned off by the genre in
- literature/fiction, literature/essay, literature/poetry, literature/play
Message
"{label}" is not the period the title reports, "{stated}"
This page is built from the rule's definition file:packages/chaff/rules/period-label-conflict.yaml