diff --git a/RELEASE_NOTES.md b/RELEASE_NOTES.md
index 29344748d..e9874dce0 100644
--- a/RELEASE_NOTES.md
+++ b/RELEASE_NOTES.md
@@ -7,7 +7,8 @@ the attribute `_LONG_IDX` as deprecated. Please use `dimensions` instead.
 
 ## Individual updates
 
-- [#559](https://github.com/IAMconsortium/pyam/pull/559) Add attribute dimensions, fix compatibility with pandas v1.3
+- [#560](https://github.com/IAMconsortium/pyam/pull/560) Add a feature to `swap_year_for_time()`
+- [#559](https://github.com/IAMconsortium/pyam/pull/559) Add attribute `dimensions`, fix compatibility with pandas v1.3
 - [#557](https://github.com/IAMconsortium/pyam/pull/557) Swap time for year keeping subannual resolution
 - [#556](https://github.com/IAMconsortium/pyam/pull/556) Set explicit minimum numpy version (1.19.0)
 
diff --git a/doc/source/conf.py b/doc/source/conf.py
index e6a0c3e70..b64265cd8 100644
--- a/doc/source/conf.py
+++ b/doc/source/conf.py
@@ -324,6 +324,7 @@
 # Intersphinx configuration.
 intersphinx_mapping = {
     "python": ("https://docs.python.org/3", None),
+    "dateutil": ("https://dateutil.readthedocs.io/en/stable/", None),
     "numpy": ("https://numpy.org/doc/stable/", None),
     "pandas": ("https://pandas.pydata.org/pandas-docs/stable/", None),
     "pint": ("https://pint.readthedocs.io/en/stable", None),
diff --git a/pyam/__init__.py b/pyam/__init__.py
index 86d95d45f..1aee585f2 100644
--- a/pyam/__init__.py
+++ b/pyam/__init__.py
@@ -10,6 +10,7 @@
 from pyam.iiasa import read_iiasa
 from pyam.datareader import read_worldbank
 from pyam.unfccc import read_unfccc
+from pyam.testing import assert_iamframe_equal
 
 from pyam.logging import defer_logging_config
 
diff --git a/pyam/core.py b/pyam/core.py
index 758a57149..2be98e10f 100755
--- a/pyam/core.py
+++ b/pyam/core.py
@@ -11,9 +11,6 @@
 from pathlib import Path
 from tempfile import TemporaryDirectory
 
-from pyam._debiasing import _compute_bias
-from pyam.time import swap_time_for_year
-
 try:
     from datapackage import Package
 
@@ -57,7 +54,7 @@
     _raise_data_error,
 )
 from pyam.read_ixmp import read_ix
-from pyam.plotting import PlotAccessor, mpl_args_to_meta_cols
+from pyam.plotting import PlotAccessor
 from pyam._compare import _compare
 from pyam.aggregation import (
     _aggregate,
@@ -75,6 +72,8 @@
     verify_index_integrity,
     replace_index_values,
 )
+from pyam.time import swap_time_for_year, swap_year_for_time
+from pyam._debiasing import _compute_bias
 from pyam.logging import deprecation_warning
 
 logger = logging.getLogger(__name__)
@@ -613,25 +612,67 @@ def interpolate(self, time, inplace=False, **kwargs):
             return ret
 
     def swap_time_for_year(self, subannual=False, inplace=False):
-        """Convert the `time` column to `year`.
+        """Convert the `time` dimension to `year` (as integer).
 
         Parameters
         ----------
         subannual : bool, str or func, optional
             Merge non-year components of the "time" domain as new column "subannual".
-            Apply `strftime()` on the values of the "time" domain using `subannual`
-            as format (if a string) or using "%m-%d %H:%M%z" (if True).
+            Apply :meth:`strftime() <datetime.date.strftime>` on the values of the
+            "time" domain using `subannual` (if a string) or "%m-%d %H:%M%z" (if True).
             If it is a function, apply the function on the values of the "time" domain.
         inplace : bool, optional
             If True, do operation inplace and return None.
 
+        Returns
+        -------
+        :class:`IamDataFrame` or **None**
+            Object with altered time domain or None if `inplace=True`.
+
         Raises
         ------
         ValueError
             "time" is not a column of `self.data`
+
+        See Also
+        --------
+        swap_year_for_time
+
         """
         return swap_time_for_year(self, subannual=subannual, inplace=inplace)
 
+    def swap_year_for_time(self, inplace=False):
+        """Convert the `year` and `subannual` dimensions to `time` (as datetime).
+
+        The method applies :meth:`dateutil.parser.parse` on the combined columns
+        `year` and `subannual`:
+
+        .. code-block:: python
+
+            dateutil.parser.parse([f"{y}-{s}" for y, s in zip(year, subannual)])
+
+        Parameters
+        ----------
+        inplace : bool, optional
+            If True, do operation inplace and return None.
+
+        Returns
+        -------
+        :class:`IamDataFrame` or **None**
+            Object with altered time domain or None if `inplace=True`.
+
+        Raises
+        ------
+        ValueError
+            "year" or "subannual" are not a column of `self.data`
+
+        See Also
+        --------
+        swap_time_for_year
+
+        """
+        return swap_year_for_time(self, inplace=inplace)
+
     def as_pandas(self, meta_cols=True):
         """Return object as a pandas.DataFrame
 
diff --git a/pyam/time.py b/pyam/time.py
index f5a3dac78..7e7b67268 100644
--- a/pyam/time.py
+++ b/pyam/time.py
@@ -1,3 +1,4 @@
+import dateutil
 import pandas as pd
 from pyam.index import append_index_col
 from pyam.utils import _raise_data_error
@@ -28,6 +29,7 @@ def swap_time_for_year(df, inplace, subannual=False):
             _subannual = time.apply(subannual)
 
         index = append_index_col(index, _subannual, "subannual")
+        ret.extra_cols.append("subannual")
 
     rows = index.duplicated()
     if any(rows):
@@ -42,3 +44,33 @@ def swap_time_for_year(df, inplace, subannual=False):
 
     if not inplace:
         return ret
+
+
+def swap_year_for_time(df, inplace):
+    """Internal implementation to swap 'year' domain to 'time' (as datetime)"""
+
+    if not df.time_col == "year":
+        raise ValueError("Time domain must be 'year' to use this method")
+    if "subannual" not in df.extra_cols:
+        raise ValueError("Data must have a dimension 'subannual' to use this method")
+
+    ret = df.copy() if not inplace else df
+    index = ret._data.index
+    order = [v if v != "year" else "time" for v in index.names].remove("subannual")
+
+    time_cols = ["year", "subannual"]
+    time_values = zip(*[index.get_level_values(c) for c in time_cols])
+    time = list(map(dateutil.parser.parse, [f"{y}-{s}" for y, s in time_values]))
+
+    index = index.droplevel(["year", "subannual"])
+    index = append_index_col(index, time, "time", order=order)
+
+    # assign data and other attributes
+    ret._data.index = index
+    ret.extra_cols.remove("subannual")
+    ret.time_col = "time"
+    ret._set_attributes()
+    delattr(ret, "year")
+
+    if not inplace:
+        return ret
diff --git a/tests/test_time.py b/tests/test_time.py
index 4d6a56ca4..acb2e2d7a 100644
--- a/tests/test_time.py
+++ b/tests/test_time.py
@@ -69,11 +69,21 @@ def test_swap_time_to_year_subannual(test_pd_df, columns, subannual, dates, inpl
     """Swap time column for year (int) keeping subannual resolution as extra-column"""
 
     test_pd_df.rename({2005: columns[0], 2010: columns[1]}, axis=1, inplace=True)
-    obs = IamDataFrame(test_pd_df).swap_time_for_year(subannual=subannual)
+
+    # check swapping time for year
+    df = IamDataFrame(test_pd_df)
+    obs = df.swap_time_for_year(subannual=subannual, inplace=inplace)
+
+    if inplace:
+        assert obs is None
+        obs = df
 
     exp = get_subannual_df(dates[0], dates[1])
     assert_iamframe_equal(obs, exp)
 
+    # check that reverting using `swap_year_for_time` yields the original data
+    assert_iamframe_equal(obs.swap_year_for_time(), IamDataFrame(test_pd_df))
+
 
 def test_swap_time_to_year_errors(test_df):
     """Assert that swapping time column for year (int) raises the expected errors"""