📋 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.

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.