quarteryear

Quarter-year, commonly referred to as a calendar quarter or fiscal quarter, is a period of three consecutive months that represents one quarter of a year. The term is used in business, finance, and statistics to segment the year for planning, reporting, and analysis. While "quarter" is the more common term, "quarter-year" emphasizes the annual proportion and may appear in certain data sets or planning documents.

The calendar quarters align with the standard Gregorian calendar: Q1 is January through March, Q2 is April through June, Q3 is July through September, and Q4 is October through December. Fiscal quarters, by contrast, depend on an organization's fiscal year, which may begin in any month; for example, a fiscal year starting in July would have Q1 as July–September, Q2 as October–December, Q3 as January–March, and Q4 as April–June.

In practice, quarter-year reporting supports quarterly financial statements, budget cycles, performance dashboards, and trend analysis. It helps smooth out monthly fluctuations and facilitates comparisons across periods. Data labeled by quarter-year are often combined into annual totals or seasonally adjusted series.

Note: The term quarter-year is less standardized than calendar or fiscal quarter, and in many contexts the word quarter suffices.