Hi Markus,
I think that removing period types in Tracker stages will be a big mistake. The demo revolves only around medical data, but we use DHIS2 mainly for projects outside the health sphere and we have had different demands at implementation for the event dates.
Currently we have a client entering data in Tracker capture once every fiscal year (fiscal year starting July). So if you remove the fiscal years from the events and just leave an open calendar date there will be a lot of room for mistakes:
- Data entry people will have to be instructed to choose a date = to the first day of the fiscal year.
I.e. fiscal year 2020 starts from 1 July 2019 and ends on 30 June 2020, so data entry folks will have to choose 1 July 2019. Then when you go to reports and aggregate data for fiscal year 2020 you have to actually aggregate by 2019. - Some people might accidentally omit step 1) above and actually leave the default date offered to a new event (which is the current date) and if this date is in 2020 then the fiscal year data will be in two yearly periods, thus impossible to aggregate for one fiscal year.
Same problems might emerge with any other period data entry that does not require an exact date - monthly, quarterly, and yearly.
Removing the period feature from the stage events will not improve the experience/functionality of DHIS2. On the contrary, it will depricate users of benefitting from periods of data entry that fit their specific projects. I am happy to jump on a call with you to further discuss this.