Definition
YTD is short for "year to date". In finance, YTD is the period starting from the first day of the current year up to now, excluding the present date. To gauge and compare business performance, companies use YTD financials to compare against the previous YTD or the YTD performance of peers.
Example
Suppose a business wants to know its YTD sales. For this, it can add the sales numbers for each budget period since the start of the fiscal or calendar year up to now, excluding the current date.
Why it matters
Year to date (YTD) is one of the ways to calculate a company's financial performance during a period. Instead of waiting for year-end numbers, a company can simply check its performance trends over the course of the year. This way, it can take required action to ensure that the end of period financials match up to expectations.