Power Pivot Calendar Tables

Technically you don't need a calendar table to use Power Pivot, however in all but the most basic use cases you really should use one. Reasons to use a Power Pivot calendar table include:

• A calendar table allows you to use the filtering power of Power Pivot to make your reports fast and snappy.
• It allows you to filter your reports on attributes such as Year, Month, Quarter and any other aggregation of time you like.
• It allows you to create your own customer view of time that may be different to a standard calendar (such as a 4/4/5 calendar) and/or create your own definition of what is a financial year.