DAX Question on YTD Totals

Solution was listed here at the bottom: https://www.sqlbi.com/articles/time-intelligence-in-power-bi-desktop/

If you are using a dimDate , then joining on Integer Date will not "Mark the Date Dim as Date Dim"  idea.  You have to create a dummy date table as illustrated towards the middle of that article and setup a join between it and the date dim.  This basically "tricks" the model into thinking that the Date field (not dimDayId)  is the primary key.  

It's sort of a workaround, but it gets it done.

For cumulative totals by month the formulas ended up being:

Local Periodic Balance Amount (measure in the table)  this just gives the monthly total

Local Period Balance Amt Cumulative = TOTALYTD(sum(factGLBalance[Local Periodic Balance Amt]),'prd dimDate'[Date],DATESYTD('prd dimDate'[Date]))      

Local Period Balance Amt PY Cumulative = TOTALYTD(sum(factGLBalance[Local Periodic Balance Amt]),SAMEPERIODLASTYEAR('prd dimDate'[Date]))

Local Period Cumlative YoY Variance = [Local Period Balance Amt Cumulative] - [Local Period Balance Amt PY Cumulative]

Local Period YoY Variance % = DIVIDE( [Local Period Cumlative YoY Variance] ,[Local Period Balance Amt PY Cumulative])

Hope that helps anyone having similar issue!