Guide
The Periods integration provides a database of predefined time periods of selected granularity (Years, Quarters, Months, Weeks, Days) and a database of days of the week.
Install
To install, within a space, choose + … Database … Sync from and pick Periods
Alternatively, it can be installed as a space template:
Configure
When installing, there are a number of options:
Period types to sync
This determines which granularity levels will be included for the Periods database. For example, you may only need a database of Quarters. If nothing is chosen, all types will be synced (Years, Quarters, Months, Weeks, Days)
Start Year
The range covered by the Periods database is always a multiple of whole years (1 year = 4 quarters, 12 months, 52/53 weeks, 365/366 days). The Start Year value determines the starting year. If left blank, it will be the current year (and will update as time goes by).
Number of years
The Number of years value controls how many whole years of Periods to sync. If left blank, only a single year will be synced.
Timezone
The Periods database includes a field whose value will change over time e.g. Relative number, and the semantic name of the entity (see below). By choosing a timezone, it is possible to affect when the changes to these occur. In other words, the first sync that occurs after midnight in the chosen timezone will result in an recalculation of these time-dependent values. If left blank, UTC will be used.
Locale
The information in the synchronised data can be chosen to reflect preferred representation for a given locale. This includes the names of the months and days of the week, date formatting for days, as well as the semantic names associated with specific entities (see below). If left blank en-US will be used.
Semantics
If this field is set to true, the names of some periods will be augmented with semantic descriptions, e.g. (yesterday), (today), and (tomorrow) or (last month), (this month) and (next month).
If
'Semantics' is turned off
a specific Start Year has been chosen (see above)
you don't enable the Relative field (see below)
then the auto-sync interval is largely irrelevant, since the particular periods to sync and their values will not change.
You can even choose to Disconnect and Migrate after the first sync has completed, which will turn the synced databases into native databases.
Once you have chosen your options, the field options for each database will be displayed.
Tip: if you are only syncing e.g. Quarters, consider renaming the Periods database to Quarters.
Sync'ed database fields
What do the synced fields mean?
Periods database
Name
The name of the period. The naming of periods has the following conventions:
Years | 4-digit number, e.g. 2025 |
Quarters | 4-digit year number followed by -Q and then the number of the quarter, e.g. 2025-Q1 |
Months | a locale-dependent version of the name of the month plus the year, e.g. Jan 2025 |
Weeks | 4-digit year number followed by -W and then the (zero-padded) 2-digit week number, e.g. 2025-W01 |
Days | a locale-dependent date string |
In addition to the name of the time period, specific entities will include a (locale-dependent) semantic descriptor (if enabled). For example, if today is 17th December 2025, then the year 2025 will be shown as(this year), the year 2024 will be shown as (last year) and the year 2026 will be shown as (next year). Similarly, 16/12/2025, 17/12/2025 and 18/12/2025 will be (yesterday), (today), and (tomorrow) respectively.
Dates
A date range which covers the period, e.g. for January 2025 it will be 01/01/2025→31/01/2025
Type
A single-select field to indicate the type (Year, Quarter, Month, Week, Day). Only included if more than one type is chosen for syncing.
Number
A number to indicate the 'position' of this entity.
Years | the year number |
Quarters | 1, 2, 3, 4 |
Months | Jan = 1, Feb = 2, Mar = 3, … Dec = 12 |
Weeks | 1, 2, 3, ..., 52 (or 53) |
Days | Jan 1st = 1, Jan 2nd = 2, Jan 3rd = 3, …, 31st Dec = 365 (or 366, if leap year) |
Relative
A number to indicate the position of the entity relative to the current entity of the same type, e.g. if today is 17th December 2025, then
Relative | Day | Week | Month | Quarter | Year |
-2 | 15/12/2025 | 2025-W49 | Oct 2025 | 2025-Q2 | 2023 |
-1 | 16/12/2025 | 2025-W50 | Nov 2025 | 2025-Q3 | 2024 |
0 | 17/12/2025 | 2025-W51 | Dec 2025 | 2025-Q4 | 2025 |
1 | 18/12/2025 | 2025-W52 | Jan 2026 | 2026-Q1 | 2026 |
2 | 19/12/2025 | 2026-W01 | Feb 2026 | 2026-Q2 | 2027 |
Previous / Next
A one-to-one self-relation connecting an entity with the previous/next entity of the same type.
Part of / Includes
A many-to-one self-relation that connects an entity to a parent entity of the next type up.
For example, if you choose to sync Months and Years, each Month is part of a single Year, and each Year includes 12 Months.
If you choose to sync Months, Quarters and Years, each Month is part of a single Quarter, and each Quarter is part of a single Year. A Year includes 4 Quarters, and a Quarter includes 3 Months.
A Week is considered to be part of whichever Month/Quarter/Year it sits mostly in
Is in / Comprises
A many-to-many self-relation that connects an entity to all parent entities of higher types.
For example, if you choose to sync Months, Quarters and Years, each Month is in a single Quarter and is in a single Year. Each Quarter is in a single Year. A Year comprises 4 Quarters and 12 Months.
Day of the week
A relation (many-to-one) from the Periods database to the Days of the Week database (only enabled if the Periods database includes the Days type).
Days of the Week database
Name
A locale-dependent name for the day of the week, e.g. Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, …, Sunday
Number
A number to indicate the position of the day in the week, i.e. Monday = 1, Tuesday = 2, etc.
Check out the Use cases for Periods.
Once the integration is setup, it is recommended to enable auto-syncing in order to ensure that the 'Relative' field values and semantics are correctly updated (if applicable) and new entities are added as time passes (if no Start year has been chosen).
However, be aware that if you are syncing 'Days' this may result in a significant usage of your entity sync allowance.
For example, syncing 5 years worth of days, and updating them every day, will result in over 50,000 syncs per month.
FAQs
I chose to only sync for 2025 so why can I see an entity for week 01 of of 2026?
Weeks are a little bit strange because they can overlap more than one year. The week 2026-W01 actually includes 3 days in December of 2025 so will be synced.
This also explains why, if you sync the year 2027 then you will notice that the first few days of the year are actually part of 2026-W53 which is the final week of the previous year 🤪