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4/4/5 Quarters in QuickBooks - How do you set fiscal months?

Anonymous
(Controller) | Aug 21, 2016

I am the controller of a restaurant group and one of the new restaurants requires quarterly reporting. Our bookkeeping firm uses QB, however, they are telling me this isn't possible which i find hard to believe as there are public restaurant groups. I did some research online and know you can set the FY (and, that seems to be more focused on a year that ends other than Dec), however, no guidance on setting variable months. By 4/4/5 I mean the 1st month ends on the 4th Sunday, the 2nd on the 4th Sunday and final month of quarter on the 5th. Any guidance or suggestions would be greatly appreciated as I am new to the restaurant industry (formerly tech). Thank you!

Answers

Randy Moore
Profile
Title: CFO
Company: SJB Bagel Makers
(CFO, SJB Bagel Makers) | Aug 22, 2016

We use QB for our restaurants as well. We have 4/5/4 quarters and I can tell you that QB does not do this. We have to manually adjust the dates for each period. It's a big PITA to compare TY to LY. You end up dumping multiple reports into excel.

(We use the Enterprise version)

Jaime Campbell
Profile
Title: Chief Financial Officer
Company: Tier One Services, LLC
(Chief Financial Officer, Tier One Services, LLC) | Aug 22, 2016

Normally I answer QuickBooks questions with "Yes! And here's how."
This is a sad exception. I know of no way to create custom date columns for a P&L, for example.

The easiest workaround that I would suggest is:

(1) Run your Q1 Profit & Loss. Click Customize Report, Advanced, and in the Display Rows area on the left, select All.
(2) Export to Excel.
(3) Repeat the above 2 steps for the other quarters.
(4) Paste each quarter next to each other and you're done.

With a speedy computer this shouldn't take more than 10 minutes.

It's important to select "All" for Display Rows because if you use an income, COGS or Expense account in Q2 that you didn't use during Q1, then when you copy & paste the accounts won't line up, and this adds needless hassle.

Gregory Q. Jenkins
Profile
Title: President
Company: Quentasia Industries Incorporated
(President, Quentasia Industries Incorporated) | Aug 22, 2016

I too used QuickBooks for my business. I concur with Jaime and Randy. There's no way to create non-calendar quarters in QuickBooks. The need for a 4-4-5 or 4-5-4 quarter is also common in retail. To do this, you must upgrade to a more robust accounting package but the cost is likely to be significantly different from Quickbooks. You should investigate Intacct, FinancialForce or NetSuite.

Anonymous
(Controller) | Aug 22, 2016

Thank you to all who responded.

Len Green
Profile
Title: Performance Improvement Consultant and E..
Company: Haygarth Consulting LLC
LinkedIn Profile
(Performance Improvement Consultant and ERP Strategist, Haygarth Consulting LLC) | Aug 23, 2016

Anon
Just as an add on:
Most restaurants are managed on a weekly basis, so that you can compare consistent periods, including same period prior year. Trending on a 7 day week cycle is helpful compared to months of 28/29, 30 and 31 days.

Check your point of sale software-that would likely give you weekly financials (but may not include costs not tracked thru QB).

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