In March 2025, we’ve released a major improvement to OdataLink’s OData Feed.
The model’s Cut Off Date settings allows you to control how older historical data is provided by OdataLink.
Fundamentally, OdataLink always acts as a live link to your MYOB or Xero data. While this ensures you always see the latest changes, it also means you are impacted by MYOB’s or Xero’s performance. This performance hit is even more noticeable when reporting on a lot of historical data.
Our previous solution to this issue was the addition of the Static Archive Type. This feature allows you to configure a model whose sole purpose is to return historical information. The downside of this approach, however, is the need to build multiple Power Queries to combine historical and current data.
This is where the new ‘Cut Off Date‘ settings shine. It essentially allows you to control the cut off point between older historical information and newer current information (that might still get edited).
For example, with a cut off date to 31/12/2023, all data prior to and including December 2023 will be considered historical. OdataLink retrieves this information once and stores it for future request. Any data from January 2024 onwards will be sourced live from the source (be it MYOB or Xero or other).
Using this feature may increase performance of the OData fees and make them 10% to 50% faster. The time saved is more substantial for those that pull a lot of historical data.
When to use the Cut Off Date settings
The Cut Off Date settings make the most sense when you are trying to retrieve large amounts of data (say 24 months or more) and where some of that information won’t change.
A good example of this is pulling Profit and Loss or Balance Sheet data for many historical years that have been audited, reconciled and closed.
Another good example is when creating sales or transactions reports that span multiple years.
When not to use Cut Off Date settings
However, there are situations where using the Cut Off Date settings is not suitable.
Some endpoints provide precalculated fields that, by their very nature, do not lend themselves to being archived.
Xero’s and MYOB’s sales, bills and invoices endpoint include amounts paid, owing and credited fields. The problem with these fields is that they change as other transactions (such as payments and credit notes) are posted.
For example, you could have a very old invoice raised in 2022, that finally gets paid in 2025.
If you were to archive those older transactions and use those fields, there is a chance the values in those fields are out-of-date.
Of course, if you do not make use of those fields, you can safely configure the Cut Off Date settings.
How to configure the Cut Off Date settings
To make use of the cut off date settings to optimise historical information, you will need to configure a few different performance options.
To configure the cut off date settings, follow these steps.
- Login to app.odatalink.com.
- Go to the Models section on the left-hand side panel.
- Click on the Model or select the View button.
- Select the Settings tab.
- Click the Edit Model button.
- Select the Live (with archive) Archive Type.
- Choose how you want to set the Cut Off Date from the following options:
Do not archive data by date. This option disables the archiving mechanism except for specific endpoints.
Archive data prior to cut off date archives any data created prior to the cut off date entered.
Archive data prior X months archives any data created prior to the cut off date calculated from the number of months entered.
Archive data prior X days archives any data created prior to the cut off date calculated from the number of days entered. - Select the appropriate Archive Paging option from the following options:
By Month: OdataLink will page the data one calendar month at a time. This may increase the performance for VERY LARGE data files.
By Year: OdataLink will page the data one calendar year at a time. This may increase the performance for LARGE data files.
We do not recommend the use of the Default option in this case it will prevent OdataLink from paging your data into smaller blocks of dates. - Enter a Default Date Range to control how much data is retrieved.
It’s particularly important you enter a Start Date, but the End Date can be left blank. - Choose the Page Size (if applicable).
- Click Save to save the changes.
What to do if incorrect historical data got archived
OdataLink provides a simple mechanism to purge archived information in the event this information is edited.
The Clear Archive Data button, present on both the Models and Data Files allows you to clear data associated with a single data file or all data files of a model.
To clear the archive data, follow these steps.
- Login to app.odatalink.com.
- Go to the Data Files section on the left-hand side panel.
- Click on the Data File or select the View button.
- Select the Settings tab.
- Click the Clear Archived Data button.