Film Accounting Glossary
Fiscal period
What is a fiscal period?
Also called accounting period, or reporting period.
A fiscal period is the accounting window a report covers, whether a production week, a month, or a company's financial year.
Productions report weekly against a consistent cut-off while their parent companies report on quarters and years, so the same cost can appear in different periods on different reports. Reconciling the production calendar to the corporate calendar is routine work on any studio show.
Example
The show reports on production weeks ending Saturday; the parent company reports on calendar quarters. A cost incurred on 29 December lands in production week 12 and in Q4, so the same dollar appears in two different periods on two different reports.
Figures are illustrative, chosen to show the mechanics rather than to quote market rates.
Where you'll see it
Reconciling the production calendar to the corporate calendar is routine work on any studio show.
Common mistake
Reconciling the production week to the corporate month only at year end. The two calendars diverge every week, and the gap is easier to explain as it happens.
Related questions
- What period does a production report on?
- A production week ending on a fixed cut-off, usually Friday or Saturday, while the parent company reports on calendar months, quarters, and its financial year.
- Why does the same cost appear in two periods?
- Because the production and corporate calendars differ. A cost in production week 12 may fall in a different corporate quarter, so both reports are right.