Each Application needs a Calendar that defines its fiscal year and reporting cadence. This article explains how to set up the Calendar for a single Application.
However, your organization can set up a Calendar once and share the Blocks it creates across Applications by using a Library. For more information, see Use Libraries to Share Data Between Applications.
Define your Calendar
First, set up some key definitions for your Calendar:
In your Application, select Settings from the sidebar, then select All settings.
Select Calendar to open the Calendar settings in the main pane.
Fill in Calendar type and First month of the fiscal year as appropriate for your business.
⚠️ Important
After you create the Calendar, you can’t change Calendar type or First month of the fiscal year without first removing the Calendar Dimension from all Blocks and then deleting the Calendar.
Alternatively, you can submit a Support ticket to change the start month of the fiscal year.
ℹ️ Note
Under accounting conventions, fiscal years take their name from the year in which they end. This means that if your fiscal year runs April to March, the year starting in April 2025 is called FY 26 in Pigment.
That’s why, if you pick any month other than January for First month of the fiscal year, your year names are taken from the second year covered.
Choose your Time Dimensions
Then, under Choose Time Dimensions, select as many as you need from the drop-down menu, depending on your business’s cadence or accounting cycle. The following are available:
Year
Half
Quarter
Month
Week
Day
ℹ️ Note
You can revisit the choice of Dimensions and Date Range at any time, but the Dimension names are not editable.
Calendar Dimensions and Properties
Saving your Time Dimensions settings creates a series of Calendar Blocks. In your Application, open the Calendar drop-down menu to view them.
These Blocks are used for the following:
Block name | Type | Description |
|---|---|---|
Day | Dimension | Records all dates in your Calendar’s date range. |
Day of Week | Dimension | Represents the days of the week, such as “Monday”. You can use it to define working and non-working days. For more information, see the PRORATA function. |
Half | Dimension | Records the start and end dates of each half-year period in your Calendar’s date range, based on the first month of the fiscal year. |
Half of Year | Dimension | Represents the halves of the year by number and name, such as “1” and “H1”. |
Month | Dimension | Specifies dates of each calendar month for all months comprised in your Calendar's date range and allocates names to them. For example, “Jan 21”. |
Month of Year | Dimension | Represents the months by number and name, such as “1” and “January”. |
Quarter | Dimension | Records the start and end dates of each quarter in your Calendar’s date range, based on the first month of your organization’s fiscal year, and assigns each quarter a name, such as “Q1 21”. |
Quarter of Year | Dimension | Represents the quarters by number and name, such as “1” and “Q1”. |
Week | Dimension | Records the start and end dates of each week in your Calendar’s date range, based on the Calendar configuration. |
Week of Year | Dimensions | Represents the weeks by number and name, from “1” and “W1” to “53” and “W53”. |
Year | Dimension | Records the start and end dates of each year in your Calendar’s date range, based on the first month of the fiscal year. |
⚠️ Important
A Calendar’s date range in Pigment is limited to 99 years.
Calendar Dimension Properties with Editable Formulas
When you create the Week, Month and Quarter Calendar Dimensions, Pigment adds Properties such as start dates, end dates and other labels.
Most Properties of Time Dimensions cannot be edited or deleted. You cannot change their data types or add or update their formulas. These are known as protected Properties and are found in Calendar and Role Dimensions.
However, some Properties have visible, editable formulas. If you selected the Week Dimension when creating your Calendar, the formulas on the following Properties within Week are editable:
Month
Quarter
Half
Year
Week of Year
The first four Properties above appear if those Calendar Dimensions were selected when creating the Calendar, although Month is selected by default. They each show a formula using the TIMEDIM function that takes the weeks’ start dates and maps them to the months, quarters, halves and years. You can edit this formula if you need to map weeks by their end date instead of start date.
Meanwhile, the Week’s Week of Year Property contains an editable formula using the MATCH function to assign each week a label from 1 to 53.
ℹ️ Note
Use Calendar Dimensions to organize Metrics by time period. For example, in a Metric View, select Pivot, then Month > Quarter to group monthly data by quarter.
Calendar Block substitution
If you have a non-native Week in your Calendar, you might want to substitute it with the native Week Dimension for Gregorian calendars.
As this is a structural change, duplicate your Application and perform all the following steps in the duplicate as a test:
Rename your current Week Block "Week_Archive" or similar.
Add the native Week Dimension to your Calendar:
Select Settings from the sidebar, then select All settings.
Select Calendar.
Under Update time Dimensions, select Week in addition to your existing selection.
Use Substitute Blocks to switch to the new Week Dimension. For more information, see Substitute a List with Another List.
⚠️ Important
Manual inputs and custom Properties are not retained during substitution. Recreate them manually in the duplicate Application.
How to delete the Calendar
To delete your Calendar:
In your Application, select Settings from the sidebar, then select All settings.
Select Calendar.
Select Delete calendar.
⚠️ Important
You cannot delete a Calendar if its Dimensions are used in Block structures.
You may permanently lose data in Blocks that depend on this Calendar.