Nice article.

As I have to work with harvest years, going from August to July the next year, it is of great interest to me as well.

I am just wondering: Is it much better to do a lot of if statements (a case statement is often a multiple-if statement unless it is very big, in which case it might be converted into a lookup table - not sure what SQL server does) than doing some quick math?

You could have calculated the fiscal month as (MONTH(somedate) + 3) % 12 + 1, which, I think, is less cluttered and much more readable than the other variant.

You could likewise calculate the year as YEAR(somedate) + (MONTH(somedate) + 3) / 12 with an equal increase in readability. Whether or not people understands what happens is another matter, but it should be quite straightforward.

/Keld Laursen