title: SQL Server Datetime vs Int key performance
body: <p>For you database design/performance gurus out there.</p>
  
  <p>If you have a database that is intended to track financial data for fiscal year periods, is it better/more performance/more clear to do daterange type searches like PaymentDate Between X and Y or is it better to keep a int-key based table with fiscal year periods defined in it and tag the payment table with the payment date and that key, so the where clause is where FiscalPeriodID = X?</p>
  
  <p>I'm sure for smaller datasets it doesn't matter, but let's assume this data will be in the millions of rows.</p>