Definition

Fiscal year

The company's own 12-month reporting window — which need not match the calendar. Two filers can both report 'fiscal 2026' over windows months apart, so a shared FY label is not a shared period: honest comparison aligns filers by period-end date, never by the label.

Formula

Fiscal year = the filer's chosen 12-month window (some retail calendars run 52/53 weeks)

Drivers — what actually moves it

Year-end choice: companies close where their season ends — retail after holidays, agriculture after harvest.
Label convention: some filers name the year by when it ends, others by when most of it falls — the period-end date is the truth.

Where it comes from

Not a filing concept with its own tag — every filed fact carries its period start and end dates as metadata. The 10-K cover page states the fiscal year end; every XBRL fact in the filing carries its exact period, which is what Echelon aligns on.

Sector caveats — where this breaks

52/53-week calendars add an extra week some years — growth over a 53-week year against a 52-week prior overstates the run rate.

Drill it in a live lesson Form 10-K Form 10-Q Revenue growth

Educational use only — not investment advice. Figures come from public SEC filings; Echelon teaches you to analyze data, it never recommends buying or selling any security.