excel fiscal calendar

Just create a 2-column lookup table that associates
a calendar date with a fiscal quarter. For example,
if your fiscal year begins in October your table
would look like...

10/1/01,Q1
1/1/02,Q2
4/1/02,Q3
7/1/02,Q4
10/1/02,#N/A

Then use the formula, =VLOOKUP(date,table,2),
to retrieve the proper quarter. If your
fiscal months don't "break" on the calendar
month end you could do this...

10/1/01,Q1,Oct
10/31/01,Q1,Nov
11/30/01,Q1,Dec
...
6/28/02,Q4,Jul
7/28/02,Q4,Aug
8/27/02,Q4,Sep
9/26/02,#N/A,#N/A

The formula, =VLOOKUP(date,table,3), would return
the fiscal month from this table. The last entry
(containing #N/As) in both tables acts as a
end of data (EOD) marker. The tables should
be expanded to cover needed time periods.