Setting the fiscal year
Go to Organization Settings and find Fiscal Year Configuration. Choose one of the presets, or set a custom end date:
- Calendar Year (December 31) -- most common for charities. FY 2025 = Jan 1, 2025 - Dec 31, 2025.
- Government Fiscal Year (March 31) -- aligned with Canadian/UK government. FY 2025 = Apr 1, 2024 - Mar 31, 2025.
- Academic Fiscal Year (June 30) -- common for educational institutions. FY 2025 = Jul 1, 2024 - Jun 30, 2025.
- Custom -- set your own fiscal year end Month and Day.
As you choose or adjust the fiscal year end, a live preview shows the resulting date range for an example year (Example: FY {year} with the start and end dates), so you can confirm the window before saving.
The fiscal year is named for the calendar year it ends in -- for example, a fiscal year running April 1, 2024 to March 31, 2025 is "FY 2025."
What it affects
Configuring the fiscal year affects how donations are grouped for annual tax receipts and QuickBooks imports. The most concrete effect is on QuickBooks Integration: when you set the start month and year for a QuickBooks import, the date range pulled in follows your organization's fiscal year end rather than always defaulting to a calendar year.
Note that this organization-wide fiscal year setting is separate from the per-project year you choose when setting up a run (used to stamp the generated receipts with a tax year) and from receipt numbering resets, which follow the calendar year. If your organization's reporting period doesn't match the calendar year, set it here so QuickBooks imports and donation grouping line up correctly.
Mid-year changes
You can change your fiscal year configuration at any time from Organization Settings, and the change is applied as soon as you save it -- there's no confirmation step. Because QuickBooks import date windows are computed from the current setting at the time you run an import, changing the fiscal year mid-year only affects imports you run afterward; it doesn't reopen or reclassify a QuickBooks import you already completed under the previous setting.
Related
- QuickBooks Integration -- fiscal year and import date ranges