I was talking to some friends last week. They graduated a few years ago. They have common sense and are very logical. This is the case for most of their friends too, yet lots of them feel very confused and ignorant about how to manage their finances, how things like the fiscal year affects them, why they should save and so on.
This is something they were not taught in secondary/high school and unless you tell me otherwise, the syllabus has not changed. Thus many young adults go to Uni and have no idea how to manage their money, limit how much debt they accumulate & as a result, get very stressed. So I’m going to try and answer some questions in separate posts.
What is the fiscal year end?
The completion of a one-year, or 12-month, accounting period.
The reason that a company’s fiscal year often differs from the calendar year and does not close on Dec 31, is due to the nature of company’s needs. For example, retailers tend to close their books at the end of January due to the large amount of December sales. If the fiscal year-end is too close to a heavy selling season, the company will have extreme time constraints in producing its annual financial statements, having to count inventories, etc.