Why do fiscall years end in the fall instead of being when a really year is? Why not just begin again in january? I was just reading how cast member matt has to wait until fall before he can make a new budget. And what is a fiscal year and what does fiscal mean?

Per my dictionary, fiscal "Of or pertaining to the treasury or finances of a nation or branch of government. Of or pertaining to finances." From the Latin fiscalis meaning treasury.

Basically it's any 12-month period that an entity does its financial planning around. The Federal Government's fiscal year ends at the end of September - but a lot of companies have fiscal years that end on December 31. I think you declare your fiscal year either when you set up your company or when you "go public".

Not all fiscal years end in the fall - I know when I worked as a lifeguard for a city pool, the fiscal year ended at the end of June. I'm sure the fiscal year for a lot of school districts ends some time in the summer, since that would make their planning so much easier. A LOT of companies have fiscal years that match the calendar year, because, as you note, it's a lot easier that way - but others, for whatever reasons, do not. You just don't hear much about those ones, because it's just "the end of the year" and they don't have to specify calendar year or fiscal year, because it's the same.

Disney has a fiscal year that ends in the fall - and all business planning is done around that -- annual business planning is a BIG, time consuming, deal, and if something wasn't included in the budget, it's REALLY hard to spend that money outside of the normal planning cycle.

A fiscal year is just an accounting year for a company. It can be any month end and is usually determined at the time of incorporation/legal formation. For the most part, it's an accounting decision. Fiscal years can change, but they rarely happen...and it does involve a bunch of paperwork that's no fun.

The resident accounting geek will help answer this question.

Fiscal years are determined basically for tax purposes or sometimes due to swings in business seasons (i.e. a company with a busy season in the winter). This plays effect on when you recognize your revenue. If your busy season is in the winter you would either want to end your year early or later since you want to record all your busy season sales in the same year.
Tax also plays a role in it.
I don't want to get to technical so that is the short of it.

thanks for clearing that up

The resident accounting geek will help answer this question.

Thank goodness for accounting geeks...it always made my job easier when I could call the resident accountant for quick answers...or to file that all important deadline (which was usually automatically filed for us anyways!). :rolleyes:

Thank goodness for accounting geeks...it always made my job easier when I could call the resident accountant for quick answers...
...This is why we have no life! :geek:

I think I am in a mid-career crisis I have started to grow my hair out longer and I finally threw my side-rule out the other day! Now I am working on finding pants that actually fit!