One of the many analyses we provide to clients is a mid-fiscal year re-forecast. This is one analysis where the difficulty of the projection is really dependent on the fiscal year definition.
Q: Why does that matter?
A: Well, for many organizations, more than half of the revenue is realized in the October through December period.
If your organization is on a calendar year fiscal, that means as you approach the last 3-months of your budget year, half of your revenue – or more – has yet to be realized. That places enormous pressure on budgeting, not to mention making it challenging to project the fiscal year revenue.
However, those organizations that are on an October-September fiscal year, already have a really good idea of how their financial budgets are going to turn out by the fourth month of their fiscal year (January). These projections are relatively a piece of cake.
Everyone hates budgeting. To make it simpler, move to an October-September fiscal year. Your CFO will love you for it.