{"id":4305,"date":"2018-05-16T20:29:48","date_gmt":"2018-05-17T00:29:48","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.sage.com\/en-us\/blog\/?post_type=sage_glossary&#038;p=4305"},"modified":"2026-02-25T08:44:27","modified_gmt":"2026-02-25T13:44:27","slug":"what-is-an-accounting-period","status":"publish","type":"sage_glossary","link":"https:\/\/www.sage.com\/en-us\/blog\/glossary\/what-is-an-accounting-period\/","title":{"rendered":"What is an accounting period?"},"content":{"rendered":"<header class=\"entry-header has-dark-background-color entry-header--has-illustration entry-header--has-illustration--generic\">\n\t<div class=\"container\">\n\t\t<div class=\"entry-header__row row align-center\">\n\t\t\t<div class=\"col col-lg-7 col-xlg-6 entry-header__content\">\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<div class=\"component component-single-header\">\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<div class=\"entry-header__misc text--subtitle text--uppercase text--small\">\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<a href=\"https:\/\/www.sage.com\/en-us\/blog\/glossary\/\" class=\"entry-header__link\">Glossary definition<\/a>\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t<div class=\"entry-title-wrapper\">\n\t\t\t\t\t<h1 class=\"entry-title\">\n\t\t\t\t\t\tWhat is an accounting period?\t\t\t\t\t<\/h1>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t<\/div>\n\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t<\/div>\n\t<div class=\"single-post-details container\">\n\t\t<div class=\"col\">\n\t\t\t<span class=\"reading-time\"> min read<\/span>\n\t\t<button\n\t\t\ttype=\"button\"\n\t\t\tclass=\"social-share-button button button--icon button--secondary js-social-share-button\"\n\t\t\tdata-share-title=\"What is an accounting period?\"\n\t\t\tdata-share-url=\"https:\/\/www.sage.com\/en-us\/blog\/glossary\/what-is-an-accounting-period\/\"\n\t\t\tdata-share-text=\"Please read this interesting article\"\n\t\t>\n\t\t\t<span class=\"social-share-button__share-label\">Share<\/span>\n\t\t\t<span class=\"social-share-button__copy-label\" hidden>Copy Link<\/span>\n\t\t\t<span class=\"social-share-button__copy-tooltip\" aria-hidden=\"true\" hidden>Copied<\/span>\n\t\t<\/button>\n\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t<\/div>\n<\/header>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\" id=\"h-accounting-period\">Accounting period<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p>The time frame in which a transaction occurs or during which financial information is presented in a report. The accounting period can be a month, a quarter or a year.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Usually, the accounting period is defined with respect to an organization\u2019s fiscal year. Fiscal year refers to one year\u2019s worth of accounting activity and can be any 12-month period throughout the year, such as June 1st to May 31st or October 1st through September 30th.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Why is an accounting period important? You, your accountant, and banker use your accounting data, aggregated by accounting period into financial statements, to analyze&nbsp;your business\u2019s performance.<\/p>\n\n\n<div class=\"single-cta\">\n\t<div class=\"single-cta__positioner\">\n\t\t<div class=\"single-cta__wrapper has-dark-background-color\">\n\t\t\t<div class=\"single-cta__content\">\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<h2 class=\"single-cta__title h3\">Subscribe to our Sage Advice Newsletter<\/h2>\n\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<div class=\"single-cta__description\">\n\t\t\t\t\t\t<p>Get our latest business advice delivered directly to your inbox.<\/p>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<a\n\t\t\t\t\t\thref=\"#gate-ab515c6e-7e90-4c2f-a67e-113872516e8b\"\n\t\t\t\t\t\tclass=\"single-cta__button button button--primary\"\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t>Subscribe<\/a>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\n\t\t\t\t\t<img decoding=\"async\" width=\"1440\" height=\"810\" src=\"https:\/\/www.sage.com\/en-us\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2022\/04\/GettyImages-1073797282-1440x810.jpg\" class=\"single-cta__image\" alt=\"Working from home with tea in hand\" loading=\"lazy\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.sage.com\/en-us\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2022\/04\/GettyImages-1073797282-1440x810.jpg 1440w\" sizes=\"auto, (min-width: 48em) 33vw, 100vw\" \/>\t\t\t<\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Accounting period The time frame in which a transaction occurs or during which financial information is presented in a report. The accounting period can be a month, a quarter or a year. Usually, the accounting period is defined with respect to an organization\u2019s fiscal year. Fiscal year refers to one year\u2019s worth of accounting activity [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":109,"featured_media":0,"template":"","meta":{"_sage_video":false,"footnotes":""},"tags":[2,110],"class_list":["post-4305","sage_glossary","type-sage_glossary","status-publish","hentry","tag-accountants","tag-accounting-101"],"distributor_meta":false,"distributor_terms":false,"distributor_media":false,"distributor_original_site_name":"Sage Advice US","distributor_original_site_url":"https:\/\/www.sage.com\/en-us\/blog","push-errors":false,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sage.com\/en-us\/blog\/api\/wp\/v2\/sage_glossary\/4305","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sage.com\/en-us\/blog\/api\/wp\/v2\/sage_glossary"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sage.com\/en-us\/blog\/api\/wp\/v2\/types\/sage_glossary"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sage.com\/en-us\/blog\/api\/wp\/v2\/users\/109"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.sage.com\/en-us\/blog\/api\/wp\/v2\/sage_glossary\/4305\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":35789,"href":"https:\/\/www.sage.com\/en-us\/blog\/api\/wp\/v2\/sage_glossary\/4305\/revisions\/35789"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sage.com\/en-us\/blog\/api\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4305"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sage.com\/en-us\/blog\/api\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4305"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}