Accounting period

An accounting period is a period of time used for bookkeeping and tax purposes. The length of an accounting period can vary from one month to several years, depending on the needs of a business. 

There are four types of accounting periods:

1. Annual. This is the most common type of period and usually corresponds with a calendar year.
2. Quarterly. Four times per year (generally four calendar quarters). Each quarter has three months within it: January–March; April–June; July–September; October–December.
3. Monthly. One report per month is generated by this method rather than one report per year like with the annual method above (13 reports annually instead of 12).
4. Weekly or daily/half-yearly or semi-annual periods also exist but are less common than annual ones due to their limited usefulness in tracking financial performance over time due to their narrow scope