Activity Dates

Definition

Within the IATI activity standard several types of dates can be specified.

Dates that relate directly to the iati-activity:

  • activity-date - the planned and actual start/end dates of the iati-activity.
  • transaction-date - the date a specific transaction took place.
  • value-date - the specific date for the value of a budget or transaction, which is used for currency conversion purposes.
  • period-start and period-end dates are used to describe a period of time in a budget , planned-disbursement or indicator
Additionally, a time-sensitive (non-date) declaration works in conjunction with the activity-date:
  • activity-status - a numeric code to declare current stage of the iati-activity.

Considerations

When using the IATI activity standard to declare dates, the following should be considered:

  • Date format for activity-date, period-start, period-end, transaction-date and value-date must be in ISO 8601 (YYYY-MM-DD), eg: 2014-03-21

  • Date format for generated-datetime last-updated-datetime must use ISO 8601 date format, e.g. “2014-03-21T18:45:00+01:00”.

  • A start and end date must be provided - if exact dates are not known then start planned or end planned should be used

  • Any start date should be before the end date, or the same

  • All dates can be updated at any point

  • An activity-date can have four types:
    • start-planned (code 1) - the forecast start date for the iati-activity (e.g. if the iati-activity is in the pipeline stage or the date of the first disbursement is not known).
    • start-actual (code 2) - the actual start date for the iati-activity (e.g. the date of the first disbursement).
    • end-planned (code 3) - the forecast end date for the iati-activity.
    • end-actual (code 4)- the actual end date for the iati-activity (End dates should, wherever possible, reflect the ending of physical activity.).

  • The activity-status represents the latest stage for the activity. It can be updated at any time.

  • When the activity-status reaches ActivityStatus codes 3, 4 or 5 then it is recommended that an end-actual (code 4) date is added.

2.01+ Considerations

In versions 2.01 and above, the following must also be considered:

  • The ActivityDateType codes for activity-date have changed to being numeric in versions 2.01 and above.
  • Dates should be a valid xsd:date, and a datetimes should be a valid xsd:dateTime.