Week Numbers and Fiscal Months in Data Studio

• Agree the rules first
• Weeks
• Fiscal months and years
• Sort order matters
• Write it down

A weekly report that starts the week on Sunday, read by a team that thinks the week starts on Monday, causes small arguments every Monday morning. I’m Harsh Khubchandani, an independent Data Studio (formerly Looker Studio) consultant in New Delhi, and this is how I make reports follow the client’s own calendar.

§Agree the rules first

Before building anything I ask three questions: which day does the week start on, does the financial year start in January or another month (April is common for Indian businesses), and how should a week that crosses a year boundary be counted.

§Weeks

Data Studio has date functions for week numbers, including ISO week functions that start weeks on Monday. For most business reporting I use the ISO week, and I label charts with the week’s start date rather than a bare number, because “week of 6 Jan” is easier to read than “week 2”.

§Fiscal months and years

For a financial year that does not start in January, I add a fiscal year and fiscal month field. In BigQuery or a Google Sheet this is simplest as a calendar table: one row per date with calendar fields and fiscal fields side by side. Data Studio then joins or reads from it, and every report uses the same definitions.

§Sort order matters

Fiscal month names must sort by fiscal month number, not alphabetically. I add a sort field so April comes first for an April-to-March year.

§Write it down

The definitions page states the week start day and fiscal year start, so a new reader doesn’t have to guess.

If your weekly or fiscal reporting doesn’t line up with how your team talks about time, I offer a free 30-minute review. Details at datastudioconsultant.com.