Dates and your fiscal calendar

Every date exists twice over. As a calendar date, it carries its year, quarter, month and week — the slicing everyone recognises. And in your company's fiscal calendar, the same date carries the fiscal year and fiscal period it belongs to, which matters because fiscal years politely decline to start in January for a great many businesses. When the cockpits default to "the current period", it is the fiscal period they mean, and the comparison machinery of 2.10 walks fiscal periods, not calendar months. The fiscal view also knows whether a period is closed, so analytics respect the same closed periods the accountants do. Your fiscal calendar is your company's own: two companies in the same product can slice the same Tuesday into different fiscal periods, and each is right.