Setting Fiscal Year is a one-time configuration for most orgs. The steps below cover the safe approach for initial setup and the rare mid-life change.
- Confirm business requirement
Work with finance to confirm the fiscal year structure. Standard handles 95% of B2B SaaS; Custom is needed for retail, manufacturing, or non-standard calendars.
- Open Fiscal Year Setup
Setup > Company Settings > Fiscal Year. The page shows the current configuration.
- Pick Standard with a start month
Select Standard Fiscal Year, choose the start month (January for calendar year; February for many B2B SaaS; April for many UK companies; July for many APAC companies).
- Or pick Custom and define structure
Select Custom Fiscal Year, pick a preset (4-4-5, 4-5-4, 13 periods) or define week-by-week. Define the upcoming fiscal year boundaries.
- Save and confirm
Save. The platform prompts to confirm; the change is broad. After confirmation, period assignments recompute across all records.
- Audit reports and forecasts
Rebuild any reports grouped by fiscal period. Re-run forecasts to refresh against the new structure. Confirm Opportunity period fields show expected values.
- Define future fiscal years (Custom only)
For Custom, define the next 2-3 fiscal years immediately so future-dated Opportunities save without errors.
Default. Calendar quarters with configurable start month.
Non-standard structure for retail, manufacturing, or unique calendars.
Configurable for Standard. The month the fiscal year begins.
Whether FY2026 starts in 2025 or 2026 (start-year vs end-year).
Preset 4-4-5, 4-5-4, 5-4-4, or 13 four-week period structures for Custom.
- Custom Fiscal Year is one-way without a Salesforce support case. Confirm long-term need before enabling.
- Changing fiscal configuration recomputes every Opportunity period assignment. Historical reports shift numbers.
- Custom Fiscal Year requires future years to be defined in advance. Missing definitions cause save errors on future-dated records.
- Some Forecasting features and reports have limited support under Custom. Audit dependencies before switching.
- Fiscal Year change is org-wide. Cannot be set per business unit; multi-business-unit orgs typically pick one calendar and adapt.