What quarter is it?
What quarter is it today, for a calendar year or a government's fiscal year. You also get the days left in the quarter and the date Q4 starts.
What quarter are we in?
--
of the calendar year.
-- days left in the quarter.
How business quarters work
When Q4 starts
Quarters count from the first day of whichever year you use, so Q4 starts on a different date in each kind of year.
| Year, and the day it starts | Q4 starts |
|---|---|
| Calendar year, January 1 | October 1 |
| US federal, October 1 | July 1 |
| UK government, April 1 | January 1 |
| UK tax year, April 6 | January 6 |
| Australia, July 1 | April 1 |
A US federal year is named for the year it ends in, so FY2027 started on October 1, 2026. FY2026’s first eleven months ran from October 2025 through August 2026.
Why “what quarter is it” has more than one answer
What quarter it is depends on whose year you count, so the same day can fall in any of the four.
| Sunday, September 27, 2026 | Quarter |
|---|---|
| Calendar year | Q3 |
| US government’s FY2026 | Q4 |
| UK government’s 2026 to 2027 | Q2 |
| Australia’s 2026-27, or FY27 | Q1 |
A QBR runs on your company’s quarters. In a year that starts in January, it lands in the first weeks of January, April, July and October. EOY moves with the fiscal year too, so in Australia it falls in June.
What happens in Q4
Q4 is when budgets get spent and costs get cut, sometimes by the same department. Expense Report has you snapping the receipts for it before their ink fades. Any money left over has to be spent in the year’s last few weeks, or next year’s budget shrinks. At a US federal office, those weeks fall in September, the last month of the fiscal year.
How many quarters in a year
A year has four quarters. February makes Q1 the shortest, and a leap year adds one day to it.
| 2026 calendar quarter | Days |
|---|---|
| Q1 | 90 |
| Q2 | 91 |
| Q3 | 92 |
| Q4 | 92 |
Retailers count a 52-week year instead, so each quarter is 13 weeks, or 91 days. Every five or six years they add a 53rd week. ISO years do the same, which is why the week number sometimes reaches 53. If a quarter is too long to wait for, the work day countdown keeps clocks for 5 pm, Friday and retirement too.
Questions about business quarters
What is Q1, Q2, Q3, and Q4 in financial year?
They're the four three-month quarters of a financial year, counted from the day that year starts, which isn't always January 1. A company whose year starts in July calls July to September its Q1.
Which quarter are we in now?
Whichever quarter holds today's month, in the year you count from. October, for one, is Q4 of the calendar year, Q1 of the US federal year and Q2 of Australia's.
What are the dates for Q1, Q2, Q3, and Q4 in 2026?
Q1 runs January 1 to March 31, Q2 April 1 to June 30, Q3 July 1 to September 30 and Q4 October 1 to December 31, 2026. The calendar dates are the same every year, and only a fiscal year moves them.
Which quarter are we in the UK?
UK quarters start three months later than the calendar's, because the government's financial year begins on April 1 and the tax year on April 6. So most of July to September is Q2 for both the financial year and the tax year. By the calendar, it's Q3.
What months are Q4 in Australia?
April, May and June. Australia's financial year starts on July 1 and ends on June 30, so those are its last three months.
What does the fourth quarter mean?
The last three months of a year, called Q4. In a calendar year that's October to December, and in the US government's fiscal year it's July to September. At work it's when leftover budget gets spent before the year closes.