The four quarters that make up a business’s fiscal year are often written as Q1, Q2, Q3, and Q4. Q1 represents quarter one, Q2 represents quarter two, Q3 represents quarter three and Q4 represents quarter four.
There are three months in each quarter. In a typical fiscal year, Q1 covers the months of January through March, Q2 covers the months of April through June, Q3 covers the months of July through September, and Q4 covers the months of October through December. Companies that are owned by the public must report their quarterly earnings to the public every three months. It’s common to put the report’s quarter and year together, like in the abbreviation “Q1 2015.”
