how do companies choose their fiscal year end 
most companies choose their fiscal year end based on the seasonality of their business some businesses are seasonal while others transact the same amount of business throughout the year businesses generally choose their fiscal year based on the period when they receive the most profit for example a business that earns most of its profit after the christmas holiday season may choose to end its fiscal year right after the bottom linethe fiscal year end of a company is the completion of a one year accounting cycle of the business it contains four quarters and usually runs from jan 1 to dec 31 some businesses have fiscal years that do not line up with a traditional calendar year as analysts rely on comparative data to identify trends and create forecasts they must be careful to compare two companies over the same time period if comparing two companies with different fiscal years analysts must adjust the data to ensure the information for both firms covers the same time frame so as not to skew the comparison one way or another this is especially the case for companies that do business in seasonal industries 