Overview
Financial reporting makes little sense without the dimension of time being applied. The Dates table provides an easy way to group and/or label time.
Bank Transactions, Bank Transfers, Budgets, Invoices and Journals are related to the Date field so that they can all be filtered by the same period at the same time.
The Different Calendars
The fields in the Dates table are grouped into four different calendars.
Below, for clarity, we've presented each calendar with its own Data Dictionary. In reality, all fields, including the Date field are in a single Dates table.
Calendar
In the 'normal' Gregorian Calendar; years start on January 1st and finish on December 31st.
Calendar Data Dictionary
Field | Type | Notes |
Calendar Half End | Date | The last day of the half year. |
Calendar Half Name | Text | The name of the half year; e.g. 2023 H1 |
Calendar Half Short Name | Text | The short name. e.g. H1 |
Calendar Half Start | Date | The first day of the half year. |
Calendar Month End | Date | The last day of the month. |
Calendar Month Name | Text | e.g. February 2023 |
Calendar Month Short Name | Text | e.g. February |
Calendar Month Start | Date | The first day of the month. |
Calendar Quarter End | Date | The last day of the quarter. |
Calendar Quarter Name | Text | e.g. 2023 Q2 |
Calendar Quarter Short Name | Text | e.g. Q2 |
Calendar Quarter Start | Date | The first day of the quarter. |
Calendar Year as Number | Number | 2023 |
Calendar Year End | Date | The last day of the year; e.g. 31 December 2023 |
Calendar Year Name | Text | 2023 |
Calendar Year Start | Date | The first day of the year; e.g. 1 January 2023 |
Fiscal calendar
The Fiscal calendar is the most commonly used calendar used for financial reporting and uses the fiscal year from your Xero organisation. If the case of multiple grouped Xero organisations, the primary Organisation's fiscal year is used.
Fiscal calendar Data Dictionary
Field | Type | Notes |
Fiscal Half | Text | FY H2 |
Fiscal Half End | Date | The last day of the fiscal half year. e.g. 31 March 2023 |
Fiscal Half Name | Text | e.g. FY 2021-2022 H2 |
Fiscal Half Short Name | Text | e.g. FY21 H2 |
Fiscal Half Start | Date | The first day of the fiscal half year. e.g 1 April 2023 |
Fiscal Month End | Date | The last day of the month. |
Fiscal Month Name | Text | e.g. April 2023 |
Fiscal Month Short Name | Text | e.g. April |
Fiscal Month Start | Date | The first day of the month. |
Fiscal Quarter | Text | FY Q4 |
Fiscal Quarter End | Date | The last day of the quarter. |
Fiscal Quarter Name | Text | FY 2021-2022 Q4 |
Fiscal Quarter Short Name | Text | FY21 Q4 |
Fiscal Quarter Start | Date | The first day of the quarter. |
Fiscal Year End | Date | The last day of the fiscal year. e.g. 30 September 2023 |
Fiscal Year Long Name | Text | FY 2022-2023 |
Fiscal Year Name | Text | FY 2022 |
Fiscal Year Short Name | Text | FY22 |
Fiscal Year Start | Date | The first day of the fiscal year. e.g. 1 September 2022 |
ISO Year Calendar
The ISO Year calendar splits months into full weeks, following a 4-4-5 week pattern, so 'January' has four weeks (28 days), 'February' has four weeks and 'March' has five (35 days).
Weeks (and hence Months and Years) always start on a Monday and end on a Sunday.
Years usually have 364 days (52 weeks). In order to catch up with reality(!) every now and then an extra week is added, in which case January has 5 weeks.
Why use the ISO Year Calendar?
This calendar is useful if you want to closely track weekly figures and is often used in retail.
Disadvantages of the ISO Year Calendar
Its disadvantages are that you can't compare months, as they are not the same period. Mind you, that's also true (and less pronounced so overlooked) for Fiscal and Gregorian calendar comparisons!
ISO Year Data Dictionary
All examples below are given for the ISO Year 2022.
Field | Type | Notes |
ISO Year as Number | Number | e.g. 2022 |
ISO Year End | Date | e.g. 1 January 2023 (which was a Sunday) |
ISO Year Half End | Date | e.g. 3 July 2022 |
ISO Year Half Name | Text | e.g. 2022 H1 |
ISO Year Half Short Name | Text | H1 |
ISO Year Half Start | Date | e.g. 4 July 2022 |
ISO Year Month End | Date | 29 May 2022 |
ISO Year Month Name | Text | May 2022
Be careful. ISO Year May 2022 had only 28 days, started on 2 May and finished on 29 May. |
ISO Year Month Short Name | Text | May |
ISO Year Month Start | Date | 2 May 2022 |
ISO Year Name | Text | 2022 |
ISO Year Quarter End | Date | 3 April 2022 |
ISO Year Quarter Name | Text | 2022 Q1 |
ISO Year Quarter Short Name | Text | Q1 |
ISO Year Quarter Start | Date | 3 January 2022 |
ISO Year Start | Date | e.g. 3 January 2022 (which was a Monday) |
ISO Year Week | Text | Week 8 |
ISO Year Week End | Date | 27 February 2022 |
ISO Year Week No | Number | 8 |
ISO Year Week Start | Date | 21 February 2022 |
ISO Fiscal Year Calendar
The ISO Fiscal Year calendar uses the ISO Year calendar, except that the year starts on the closest Monday to the beginning of the fiscal year as set in Xero (or in the case of grouped Xero's, the primary Organisation's fiscal year).
The advantages and disadvantages are as per the ISO Year Calendar, with the additional advantage that it can start at a point other than the nearest Monday to January 1.
ISO Fiscal Year Data Dictionary
All examples below are given for a Fiscal ISO Year 2022 that's Fiscal year runs from March and ends in February.
In 2022, the first Monday of March was 7 March.
Field | Type | Notes |
ISO Fiscal Year End | Date | 5 March 2023 |
ISO Fiscal Year Half | Text | FY H1 |
ISO Fiscal Year Half End | Date | 4 September 2022 |
ISO Fiscal Year Half Name | Text | FY 2022-2023 H1 |
ISO Fiscal Year Half Short Name | Text | FY22 H1 |
ISO Fiscal Year Half Start | Date | 7 March 2022 |
ISO Fiscal Year Long Name | Text | FY 2022-2023 |
ISO Fiscal Year Month End | Date | 1 May 2022 |
ISO Fiscal Year Month Name | Text | Month 2 2022 |
ISO Fiscal Year Month Short Name | Text | Month 2 |
ISO Fiscal Year Month Start | Date | 4 April 2022 |
ISO Fiscal Year Name | Text | FY 2022 |
ISO Fiscal Year Quarter | Text | FY Q2 |
ISO Fiscal Year Quarter End | Date | 4 September 2022 |
ISO Fiscal Year Quarter Name | Text | FY 2022-2023 Q2 |
ISO Fiscal Year Quarter Short Name | Text | FY Q2 |
ISO Fiscal Year Quarter Start | Date | 6 June 2022 |
ISO Fiscal Year Short Name | Text | FY22 |
ISO Fiscal Year Start | Date | 7 March 2022 |
ISO Fiscal Year Week | Text | Week 19 |
ISO Fiscal Year Week End | Date | 17 July 2022 |
ISO Fiscal Year Week No | Number | 19 |
ISO Fiscal Year Week Start | Date | 11 July 2022 |