SPREADSHEET GUIDE

Ambiguous dates in monthly sales reports

01/02/2026 can mean January 2 or February 1. A tidy-looking cell can still put an order in the wrong month.

Formatting a date does not resolve its meaning.

A date display format controls how a parsed value looks. It cannot establish which date the original text intended. Automatic import may interpret slash dates using the computer's locale. Confirm the export's date convention before conversion.

The interactive example on our homepage retains 01/02/2026 for review. The separate downloadable CSV was created with an explicitly defined month/day/year convention for slash dates. Under that fictional rule, DEMO-004's 02/04/2026 means February 4.

Keep the conversion reviewable.

1. Preserve the original date text beside the parsed result or in the issue log.
2. Check the export setting or source documentation. A value such as 01/13/2026 supports a month-first interpretation, but does not prove that every combined file follows it.
3. Convert confirmed values into actual spreadsheet dates. Use a year-month-day display to make the result clear.
4. Flag invalid or unresolved values. Do not assign them to a month by guessing.

Use the beginning of the next month as the cutoff.

For January, include dates on or after January 1 and before February 1. This also includes January 31 records with times later than midnight. When timestamps include a time zone, agree on the store's reporting time zone before assigning months.

Order date >= month start
Order date < next month start

Our template uses these month boundaries and counts only Ready orders in the selected reporting year. It assigns refunds to the original order date. If you need refund activity by the refund date, that requires a separate date field and reporting definition.

This page uses invented records. Your real export needs its own verified date convention.

Read the guide to repeated order IDs

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