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Tesla's fiscal year is the same as a calendar year, going from Jan 1 in the current year till Dec 31 next year.

According to https://www.nasdaq.com/market-activity/stocks/tsla/financials

ANNUAL

Period Ending: 12/31/2020 12/31/2019 12/31/2018 12/31/2017
Total Revenue $31,536,000 $24,578,000 $21,461,000 $11,759,000

Apple's fiscal year is so strange:

According to https://www.nasdaq.com/market-activity/stocks/aapl/financials

ANNUAL

Period Ending: 9/25/2021 9/26/2020 9/28/2019 9/29/2018
Total Revenue $365,817,000 $274,515,000 $260,174,000 $265,595,000

The line labeled "Period Ending" is 9/25/2021, 9/26/2020, 9/28/2019, 9/29/2018, which means that

  • Apple's 2017-2018 fiscal year goes from 10/1/2017 till 9/29/2018
  • Apple's 2018-2019 fiscal year goes from 9/30/2018 till 9/28/2019
  • Apple's 2019-2020 fiscal year goes from 9/29/2019 till 9/26/2020
  • Apple's 2020-2021 fiscal year goes from 9/27/2020 till 9/25/2021

It is not smart to set a period for a fiscal year. Why didn't they set Oct 1 in the current year till Sep 30 next year or another similar way for simplicity?

Andrew T.
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showkey
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    Comment because this is a bit speculative, but note that every financial year ends on the last Saturday of September - which suggests perhaps they're simply doing it because this pattern fits their internal processes well? – Andrew is gone Feb 02 '22 at 11:55
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    Maybe they are using a lunar calendar? 😁 – minou Feb 02 '22 at 12:56
  • ISO 8601 standard -- ISO week date. Also previously known as "Industrial date coding". – Paul_Pedant Feb 03 '22 at 13:48
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    Probably half of all companies do not align their fiscal year with the calendar year. It is not that strange. See https://money.stackexchange.com/questions/1002/why-do-companies-have-a-fiscal-year-different-from-the-calendar-year for more information on FY variations. – TylerH Feb 03 '22 at 14:55
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    "It is not smart to set a period for a fiscal year" — does it seem like it's hurting them? – Paul D. Waite Feb 03 '22 at 15:29
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    It's not just Apple. Companies have fiscal years that go all over the place. My company's fiscal year starts in July, for example. It's extremely common. – J... Feb 03 '22 at 20:52

1 Answers1

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Some companies want the financial year to end at the end of a month, others want it to end at the end of a specific week.

A comment noted that the end of the year for Apple has been the last Friday of September.

Ending on a specific day of the week they will also end the quarters every 13 weeks. They occasionally need to have a 53 week year and a quarter with a 14th week. The company does this to allow them to more easily compare quarters, without having to know the number of days in each quarter. They also don't have to be concerned about the number of weekends in each quarter.

mhoran_psprep
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    "The company does this to allow them to more easily compare quarters, without having to know the number of days in each quarter." - Well, this is exactly not true for those quarters having 14 weeks. – bers Feb 02 '22 at 20:31
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    Bers, it’s simple. You multiply by 13/14th. You publis the actual results for 14 weeks and the adjusted results for 13 weeks. Happens every five to six years. – gnasher729 Feb 02 '22 at 22:03
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    Ah, it's like leap weeks for quarters, compared to leap days for years. – Nayuki Feb 03 '22 at 14:30