Snapshot fact tables provide an 'as at' view of some part of the business. They always have a time dimension that represents the 'as at' date. For example, we may have a weekly or monthly snapshot of our inventory information. Such a snapshot would allow us to see what inventory we had at a particular point in time and allow us to compare our holdings over time. Snapshots are often used when dealing with people profiles or client/customer profiles to enable us to view the state of our relationship with an entity at a given point in time e.g. to see a monthly trend of a client's outstanding balance.