📋 TL;DR

Every XAVI formula that returns financial data, such as XAVI.BALANCE and XAVI.TYPEBALANCE, requires a period argument to tell NetSuite the dates to report on.

The correct period format depends on your NetSuite accounting calendar. Most organizations can use Excel dates or month labels, while organizations with custom fiscal calendars should use NetSuite period names.

This article explains how XAVI resolves that period, what input formats are accepted, and how to handle custom fiscal calendars where periods don't align to calendar months.

When you enter a date in a period argument, XAVI does not filter for transactions on that single day.

Instead, it determines which accounting period that date falls in and uses NetSuite's period definition, including the period's actual start and end dates, when it runs the query.

XAVI accepts several period formats, allowing you to build reports using Excel dates, period labels, or NetSuite period identifiers.

You can type any of the following directly into a formula, or reference a cell that contains the value:

Month labels are flexible. XAVI automatically normalizes them to the MMM YYYY format before sending them to NetSuite.

XAVI accepts either Excel dates or Excel date serials.

Rule: Integers ≥ 10,000 that map to a date in 1990–2100 are Excel serials, not posting IDs.

Sample Report uses this when the month headers are =DATE($E$3, COLUMN()-…, 1).

If your NetSuite periods use custom names, pass the period name directly.

Examples:

This is the recommended format for organizations using custom fiscal calendars.

Both fromPeriod and toPeriod accept any supported format.

For Balance Sheet formulas, toPeriod is optional. If omitted, XAVI treats fromPeriod as the "as of" period.

These inputs return #N/A.

The period label XAVI sends to NetSuite must match your NetSuite accounting calendar. If your period names differ from standard English Month YYYY format, use the exact period name from NetSuite.

Adjustment periods: Pass the period name as a quoted string.

For example, if the adjustment period name is PY 01 2025 and you need the balance for 4100:

=XAVI.BALANCE("4100", "PY 01 2025", "PY 01 2025")

Instead of editing every formula when you roll to a new year, point all your period arguments at one input cell.

Explicit months

Keep the year in $B$1 and build full dates with Excel's DATE function:

Change the value in $B$1 and all dependent formulas update automatically on the next calculation to the new year.

If your report needs a row or column of consecutive periods, you don't have to type each one. Build the first period from your year cell, then drag one formula to generate the rest. Because each cell contains a real Excel date, XAVI resolves it to the correct accounting period — and a custom number format makes the cells display just like your period names.

Enter the reporting year in a single input cell, for example B1 = 2025. This is the only cell you'll change when you roll the report to a new year.

In your first period header cell (for example C3), enter:

=DATE($B$1, 1, 1)

This returns January 1 of the year in B1. If your fiscal year starts in a different month, change the month number — for example =DATE($B$1, 7, 1) for a July start.

In the next cell (for example D3), enter:

=EDATE(C3, 1)

EDATE adds one month to the previous cell's date. Because the reference is relative, you can drag this formula across (or down) as far as you need — each cell automatically advances one period.

The cells now contain dates like 1/1/2025. To make them display like your period names, apply a custom number format:

The result:

To roll the entire report forward a year, change B1 to 2026 — every period header and every XAVI formula referencing it updates on the next calculation.

Many organizations use custom fiscal calendars — such as 4-4-5, 4-5-4, 5-4-4, or other period structures — where accounting periods do not align to calendar month boundaries. Period names like P01 2025 or P03 2024 cannot be resolved from a date alone because the start and end of each period are unique to your company's configuration in NetSuite.

For users on custom period structures, the recommended approach is to reference the period name of each accounting period directly in your XAVI formulas. This section explains what period names are, how to find them, and how to structure your Excel workbook so that names drive your XAVI formulas while your headers display clean, human-readable period names.

Every accounting period in NetSuite is assigned a unique period name when it is created. When you automatically generate accounting periods, the period names are fairly easy to understand, i.e., they are Jan 2026, Feb 2026, etc.

When you pass a period name to an XAVI formula, NetSuite returns data for exactly that period, regardless of how the period name is formatted or whether its dates cross month boundaries.

Here is a sample mapping from a custom accounting period structure:

There are two ways to find your NetSuite accounting period names.

The Bulk Add Periods and GL feature in CloudExtend Excel generates a structured export of all your accounting periods, including period names, start dates, and end dates. This is the fastest way to capture a complete, accurate mapping for use in your XAVI workbooks.