Standard and Custom Fiscal Year in Salesforce : Bijay Kumar

November 20, 2025 November 20, 2025

Standard and Custom Fiscal Year in Salesforce
by: Bijay Kumar
blow post content copied from SalesForce FAQs
click here to view original post

### Summary of Standard and Custom Fiscal Year in Salesforce Salesforce offers two types of fiscal years for organizations to track and manage their financial data: the **Standard Fiscal Year** and the **Custom Fiscal Year**. - **Standard Fiscal Year**: - Follows the traditional calendar, from January 1 to December 31. - Easy to set up within Salesforce by selecting the starting month and saving the changes. - **Custom Fiscal Year**: - Allows businesses to define their financial year, which can start any month of the year and have unique structures (like 4-4-5). - More flexible but requires additional steps to set up, including agreeing to enable the custom fiscal year and defining the quarter structure. Important Note: Once you switch from the standard to the custom fiscal year, you cannot revert back. Additionally, all existing forecasts and records will be deleted when a custom fiscal year is established. #### Key Steps to Set Up Fiscal Years: - **For Standard Fiscal Year**: 1. Navigate to the Setup page. 2. Search for "Fiscal Year" in the Quick Find Box. 3. Select Standard Fiscal Year and choose the start month. 4. Save the setup. - **For Custom Fiscal Year**: 1. Go to the Setup page and search for "Fiscal Year." 2. Select Custom Fiscal Year, check the agreement box, and enable it. 3. Click "New" to create a custom fiscal year, selecting your desired structure (e.g., 4-4-5). 4. Input details like start date, fiscal year name, and preview the setup. 5. Save the configuration. ### Conclusion Understanding how to set up fiscal years in Salesforce is crucial for accurate financial reporting and performance tracking. Whether your organization fits the standard calendar or requires a custom structure, Salesforce accommodates both. ### Additional Information For users looking to dive deeper, they can explore further topics like deactivating the Salesforce Developer Edition, setting up currencies, or configuring business hours. ### Hashtags for SEO #Salesforce #FiscalYear #SalesforceSetup #CustomFiscalYear #StandardFiscalYear #FinancialManagement #CRM #SalesforceAdmin #DataTracking #BusinessFinance

Salesforce provides the Standard Fiscal Year feature, which runs from January to December.

Suppose the company wants to customize its Fiscal Year because its financial cycle does not follow the standard January-to-December calendar. In that case, Salesforce provides the option to use a Custom Fiscal Year.

While working as a system admin for a Salesforce consulting company, I was assigned to set up and integrate Salesforce CRM for a client. In addition to other integrations and configurations, I had to set up the fiscal year according to client requirements.

Here, I will explain about standard and custom fiscal year in Salesforce and how to set them up.

Fiscal Year in Salesforce

A fiscal year is a Salesforce feature that allows us to organize and manage the company’s financial data. It specifies the start and end dates of the business’s accounting periods. This provides reporting and tracking of economic performance.

A customized fiscal year can be set up with any specific 12-month period based on business needs. It can follow the regular calendar year or any 12-month period starting from the first day of a month.

There are two types of fiscal years in Salesforce:

Standard Fiscal Year in Salesforce.
Custom Fiscal Year in Salesforce.

Important:

When you switch from the standard to the custom fiscal year again, you cannot return to the standard fiscal year. The standard fiscal year option will disappear from the org.
Salesforce’s custom fiscal year feature affects your forecast, quotas, and reports. When you set up a fiscal year in Salesforce, all existing forecast history and records are deleted starting with the year’s first period.

Standard Fiscal Year in Salesforce

In Salesforce, the fiscal year is typically a 12-month period during which an organization plans its finances, accounting, and other administrative tasks.

A standard fiscal year in Salesforce defaults to the Gregorian calendar, which runs from January 1 to December 31.

This means the fiscal year aligns with the calendar year. If the organization’s fiscal year requirements differ from the regular calendar year, we can modify the Salesforce settings accordingly.

Set up Standard Fiscal Year in Salesforce

One of our clients’ requirements was that they wanted to start the fiscal year in March. Here, I will show you how to modify the standard fiscal year setting by following the steps below.

On the Setup page, in the Quick Find Box, search for the Fiscal Year. Under the Company Settings, you can see the fiscal year. Click on it.

Here, you can see the standard and custom fiscal years. Click on the Standard Fiscal Year.
- Now, select the Fiscal Year Start Month—as per the scenario, I selected March as a start month. Then, specify whether the fiscal year name is set to the starting or ending month. This is optional.
- Then click on the Save button.

Set up Standard Fiscal Year in Salesforce

Now, to check whether the fiscal year setup is applied or not, go to Company Information, and you will see Fiscal Year Start in (the month that you selected).

This is how we can set up a standard fiscal year in Salesforce.

Custom Fiscal Year in Salesforce

A custom fiscal year in Salesforce lets us define an organization’s accounting and reporting periods outside the regular calendar year. In a custom fiscal year, we can set the financial year format to quarterly or annually.

For example, you could have 4 quarters with 13 weeks per quarter in a 4-4-5 pattern. Let’s understand what a 4-4-5 structure is.

In a financial year, each quarter is divided into three periods of four weeks each, with the third usually five weeks long. So, if period one has four weeks, period two has four weeks, and period three has five weeks, this is referred to as a 4-4-5 template.

Set up Custom Fiscal Year in Salesforce

The client wanted to set up a custom fiscal year that starts on July 1 and ends on June 30, with each quarter (4-4-5) running for weeks.

Here, I will show you how to set up the custom fiscal year using the steps below.

Setup. -> Quick Find Box, search Fiscal Year. Click on it.
- Click on the Custom Fiscal Year. Then, select the agreement checkbox to enable the custom fiscal year, and then click the enable button.

Standard and Custom Fiscal Year in Salesforce

Then, a web alert pop-up will appear. Click the OK button.

After that, click the New button to set up a custom fiscal year. As you click the new button, the pop-up will open, as in the following image.
- Here, you need to select the Fiscal Year Structure. You can select the structure according to quarters, periods, or the standard fiscal year that uses a Georgian calendar.
- Then click the Continue button.

Now enter the following details:

Custom Fiscal Year Start Date: Select the date that fits your requirements. Here, as per our scenario, I selected 1 July.
Fiscal Year Name: Defaults to the year of the end date. The “FY” (fiscal year) prefix will automatically be added to the report and forecasting labels.
Week Start Day: Used as the first day of the week in the preview.
Advanced Customization: Explained in step 6.
Reset Fiscal Year Structure: Here, you can reset the fiscal year structure (step 3) if you want.

Then, if you want to preview the quarters and how the weeks are divided, click the Preview button (step 6). Then click the Save button.

When you click Advanced Customization, you can adjust the number of weeks in a quarter. For example, we can keep one quarter with four weeks and the next with five weeks.

Now, as you click on the preview button, you will see all four quarters, periods, and weeks in each period for the duration of one fiscal year from the start date that you have chosen.

Here, you can see the custom fiscal year has been successfully set up.

Custom Fiscal Year Limitations in Salesforce

This is how we can set up a custom fiscal year in Salesforce.

Conclusion

I hope you now have an idea about standard and custom fiscal years in Salesforce. We have seen what a fiscal year is and how to set up standard and custom fiscal years in Salesforce, with examples and step-by-step explanations.

Salesforce Reader