The main reasons companies will shift their fiscal calendar from the actual calendar year is for tax and cash flow implications. A lot of sales and cash flow e

The main reasons companies will shift their fiscal calendar from the actual calendar year is for tax and cash flow implications. A lot of sales and cash flow events are seasonal in nature. Sales for a company may slow down during the summer and may pick up in the winter. For example, a school year tends to run Sep - May, so any business that services the academic industry would probably also want to set their fiscal calendar to July thru June, so that sales, cash flow and income aligns with the actual sales cycle, rather than split their income statement across two academic years if they went with Jan thru December. Just one of many examples. Another company might make most of their sales towards the end of the year but since customers buy on credit they might not receive the cash flow until Jan, Feb, or March (under a net 90 invoicing scheme). So they may choose to then have Jan-Mar be their Q4 so they can collect on that revenue to influence their EOY balance sheet, and to give them more of a buffer to cover EOY taxes.