Beyond months: Zoho CRM now supports custom fiscal year formats

Beyond months: Zoho CRM now supports custom fiscal year formats

Hello (again) folks !

You can now set your CRM's fiscal year to follow the 4-5-4 calendar and other widely used 52-week fiscal year formats.


Why this change?

As you know, the fiscal year of an organization may not coincide with the Gregorian calendar (spanning from January 1 to December 31). There could be multiple reasons for this: legal regulations in a region, seasonal patterns in sales, lower cost of auditing services, and so on. In Zoho CRM, you already have the option of choosing the starting month of the fiscal year. This lets businesses shift their fiscal year based on their specific needs.

In many industries, there is an additional need to divvy up the fiscal year into periods that are more uniform than calendar months. So, they look at a fiscal year as 52 weeks instead of 12 months.

For example, in the retail industry, the contribution of weekend sales usually outstrips weekday sales. In such cases, retail businesses would like to split the fiscal year into periods that include the same number of weekends. This enhances the comparability of sales data (across weeks, periods, and quarters), improves forecasting, eases payroll calculation, and simplifies accounting work. So, many retail businesses have adopted the 4-5-4 fiscal year format.

To address the needs of businesses that follow such calendars, we've now added custom fiscal year formats in Zoho CRM. These include:

  • 4-4-5, 4-5-4, or 5-4-4: In these quarter-based formats, each quarter has 13 weeks. Within a quarter, these 13 weeks are spread across 3 periods. The number of weeks in these three periods gives the names of these formats: 4-4-5, 4-5-4, and 5-4-4.

  • 3-3-3-4, 3-3-4-3, 3-4-3-3, or 4-3-3-3: In these year-based formats, each period consists of 4 weeks. A fiscal year consists of 13 such periods. These periods are distributed across 4 quarters in 3-3-3-4, 3-3-4-3, 3-4-3-3, and 4-3-3-3 formats. The names indicate the number of periods in each of those four quarters.

What's changed?

  • Choose your fiscal year type
    A new option called Custom Fiscal Year will be available on the Fiscal Year tab. The previous option of choosing the starting month and following the Gregorian calendar will be available under the Standard Fiscal Year option.

  • Pick a format and start date that works for you
    You can choose one of the seven formats we'd described before. The preview section tells you what each format means in terms of quarters, periods, and weeks.

    A start date can be set to precisely align your CRM's fiscal year to your organization's calendar.

  • Check your fiscal year visually
    You can preview in calendar to know which dates fall in which period and to get a visual representation of your fiscal year. If you're not satisfied, you can change the pattern and check the preview again.

  • Configure display options
    You can also choose how you want the fiscal periods to be displayed in CRM.

  • Manage the surplus week
    Since these formats split the year into 52 weeks (364 days), there is always a slip of a day each year. Depending on your needs, you may need to add an extra week to a financial period. For example, you may need to do this if you want your fiscal year to begin on the first Monday of April always. You can add an extra week to any of the upcoming fiscal periods to correct for this.

  • Track fiscal year changes
    You can also view the history of fiscal year changes in the Fiscal Year tab. For entries with custom fiscal year formats, you can preview them in calendar.

  • Custom fiscal year and forecasts
    Once set, fiscal years can be managed only from the Fiscal Year page. Previously, it was managed in the Forecast Configuration page. Once a custom fiscal year is chosen, we can create forecasts based on quarters or periods. The Monthly option will be replaced by the Periodly option.

 

Note: Changing the fiscal year type will delete all existing forecasts.


To learn more about custom fiscal year, see: Set up fiscal year in Zoho CRM.


Do let us know your thoughts!

    • Recent Topics

    • Users may not pick the fields to be shown as columns in the Choose Account window when creating a new Deal record

      Hi there, by talking with other users I found out that I, as an Admin, am the only one who can pick fields to be shown as columns in the Choose Account window when creating a new Deal record. In fact, if other users click on the "Add Column" symbol on

    • Allow selection of select inactive users in User data fields

      Hello, We sometimes need to select a previous employee that has an inactive account in the User data field. For example, when doing database cleanup and indicating actions are done by a certain employee that weren't filled out when they were part of the

    • [Webinar] Top 10 Most Used Zoho Analytics Features in 2025

      Zoho Analytics has evolved significantly over the past year. Discover the most widely adopted features in Zoho Analytics in 2025, based on real customer usage patterns, best practices, and high-impact use cases. Learn how leading teams are turning data

    • Need advice for product/item search functionality when adding invoices.

      My client uses "Catalog or Vendor" name and Product code to search for his items. But Zoho only allow to search by product name and SKU when adding items to Invoices/Estimates. Clients product codes are not unique as they may overlap from different catalogs/vendors.

    • Super Admin Logging in as another User

      How can a Super Admin login as another user. For example, I have a sales rep that is having issues with their Accounts and I want to view their Zoho Account with out having to do a GTM and sharing screens. Moderation Update (8th Aug 2025): We are working

    • Do buttons and vba msgbox work on mobile, specifially the iPhone zoho sheets app?

      In Zoho sheets on the web, I inserted a button and assigned a VBA macro to it. It pops up a msgbox with some text. When I go onto the iPhone mobile zoho sheets app, the button is there. When I click on that button, the spinning asterisk appears for a

    • [Webinar] Solving business challenges- Handling the challenge of transitioning to Zoho Writer from legacy tools

      Moving to Zoho Writer is a great way to consolidate your business tools and become more agile. With multiple accessibility modes, no-code automation, and extensive integration with business apps and content platforms, Zoho Writer helps solve your organization's

    • How can I effectively manage a website with your help?

      I’m wondering if it’s possible to develop a custom website with specific features using Zoho as an alternative platform. My goal is to create a website similar to https://tmsim.ph, with the same kind of functionality and user experience. I would truly

    • Introducing the Yes/No field: Binary decisions made beautiful

      Greetings, form architects! What would you do when you need a simple yes/no answer on your form? Normally, you add a Radio field. Type Yes. Type No. Until now. The new Yes/No field is purpose-built for binary decisions. It is preconfigured, visually consistent,

    • Move email between inboxes?

      Is it possible to move emails from one team inbox to another? We would like to be able to have a single "catch-all" inbox for incoming requests, and then move the email to the appropriate department inbox. I was hoping we would be able to accomplish this

    • The power of workflows in Zoho Marketing Automation - Video Webinar

      In this Zoho Marketing Automation video webinar, our experts walk you through: Why you may want to create marketing workflows How to create marketing workflows Use Zoho CRM data and apply workflows to automate your marketing strategy How workflows can

    • Offer already made- but I withdrew it

      I made an offer letter, but made a mistake on it. I withdrew the offer but now I can't recreate the correct offer. Zoho keeps saying that "A same offer has already been made". I look in the "offers" and there are NO offers (this is the first time I've

    • Zoho CRM's sales trend and sales follow-up trend dashboards are now customizable

      Dear Customers, We're here with good news! Sales trend and sales follow-up trend are two system-defined dashboards that help you understand trends and anomalies in your sales outreach and conversion efforts. They use Zia's intelligence to identify patterns

    • Introducing Rule-Based AI Coding Assistants for Zoho Finance Widgets

      Hello customers, We’ve introduced rule-based AI coding assistants to speed up Zoho Finance widget development. You can try them out in Cursor AI and GitHub Copilot. This helps you build widgets quickly using simple prompts, while ensuring the generated

    • Marketing Tip #21: Create an About Us page

      People don’t just buy products, they buy from brands they trust. An About Us page helps customers understand who you are, what you stand for, and why your business exists. It adds a human touch to your store and reassures shoppers that there’s a real

    • Zobot to handle single choice menu when dynamic list content is more than 10 items

      Whatsapp supports maximum of only 10 items for its single choice menu. When we need to show a dynamic list with content more than 10, this could be challenging. We essentially need to add a next and previous buton here in order to make it functional.

    • Add the ability to Hide Pages in Page Rules

      Hi, We have Field Rules to show and hide fields and we have page Rules, but we can't hide a page in Page Rules so it isn't completed before the previous page (And then have the Deny Rules to prevent submitting without both pages completed), we can only

    • Column letter from number

      Hello, I am trying to select a cell and i have the column number. How do i do this or is there a way of getting the letter from the number? Thank you

    • Zoho CRM NextGen UI

      Zoho CRM の Everyone 画面の UI がまた変わるのですね。NextGen UI 更新日時が1ヶ月前で、Zoho Japan でもアナウンスされていたようですが、気が付きませんでした。 【Zoho CRM】Zoho CRM for EveryoneのUIアップデートのお知らせ https://support.zoho.co.jp/portal/ja/kb/articles/zoho-crm-zoho-crm-for-everyone-s-nextgen-ui-gets-an-upgrade

    • Composite Product (kit) - Dynamic Pricing

      I am setting up Composite Products for item kits that I sell. I also sell the items from the kit individually. Problem is when pricing changes on an individual part, the Composite Product price does not change meaning when the cost of item # 2 in the

    • View Answer Bot conversations?

      We are trialing Zia and are experimenting with Answer Bot on our knowledge base. So far so good! Management asks me if it is possible to view Answer Bot conversations, the purpose being to look over its shoulder and confirm that it is working as des

    • Train Zia answer bot on only part of Knowledge Base?

      We are trialing Zia answer bot and hope to use it on the knowledge base to help our users find the information they are looking for. I have found how to train Zia on the entirety of our knowledge base. But is there a way to train it on only certain categories

    • Smarter holiday planning with yearly-specific Holiday Lists

      Hello everyone! Managing holidays and business hours is now easier and more efficient. Holiday Lists now support holidays that fall on different dates every year, while business hours now supports more than one holiday list. This helps businesses manage

    • Temporary Outage in Zoho Cliq Affecting US Users – July 23, 2025

      We experienced a service disruption in Zoho Cliq that impacted core functionality for users in the US region. The issue occurred between Jul 23, 2025, 06:54:00 PM IST and 07:13:13 PM IST, lasting approximately 19 minutes. To restore service stability,

    • ERROR CODE :550 - 550 5.1.1 Invalid email recipients

      This message was created automatically by mail delivery software. A message that you sent could not be delivered to one or more of its recipients. This is a permanent error. mustafa.ashraf@techlink-eg.net, ERROR CODE :550 - 550 5.1.1 Invalid email recipients

    • Function #20: Custom calculation in item table of invoices

      When you create an invoice in Zoho Books, the 'Amount' of a line item is typically calculated as the product of the "Quantity" and the "Rate" of the item. For instance, if an item has a sales rate of $50 and a quantity of 5 is sold, then the amount would

    • Impossible to import Journal from Freshbooks

      I have been trying to import journals from Freshbooks since August 30th. Every time I try to import, I get an error message. I have already made sure every row has a date. First it was saying the account and notes had unexpected input and that every debit/credit

    • How to Create a Fixed Sliding Time Window (D-45 to D-15) in Zoho Analytics ?

      Hello, I would like to create a report in Zoho Analytics based on a sliding time window between D-45 and D-15, with a fixed snapshot of that specific period. The data displayed should strictly reflect activity recorded between D-45 and D-15 only, without

    • Wie veröffentliche ich ein PDF Datei?

      Hallo! Wie veröffentliche ich PDF Datein ich habe ein PDF Datei und den sieht ihr im Upload ich möchte ihn veröffentlichen wie? Mit Freundlichen Grüßen, Herr Bahaa Addin Chkirid

    • Zoho Campaigns: An Outstanding Email Marketing Tool

      Introducing Zoho Campaigns! A product designed by Zoho, the Zoho Campaigns is made to create, deliver, and manage integrated email campaigns that can help in boosting the sales of a company and its customer base. Zoho Campaigns is actually an email marketing

    • Zoho Creator Developer Console | Improved Distribution and Lifecycle Management for apps

      Hello everyone, We're excited to introduce new enhancements now in the Zoho Creator Developer Console. These updates strengthen private app distribution through licensing controls and extend environment support across all installed apps, helping teams

    • Anchor Links in Dashboards

      Hello,  Our dashboards frequently have multiple sections that would be more easily skipped between using anchor links. Please consider adding an anchor link feature to the text widget? This could be done by adding an anchor link option to the text widget next to the "remove" option (see screenshot). The option would assign an ID to the <div> containing the text widget in the live dashboard. Then, the chosen ID could be linked using a traditional <a href="#link_id"> in the html section of the text

    • Zoho Books emails suddenly going to Spam since 11 Nov 2025 (Gmail + now Outlook) — anyone else?

      Hi everyone, We migrated to Zoho Books in July 2025 and everything worked fine until 11 Nov 2025. Since then, Zoho Books system emails are landing in customers’ Spam (first Gmail, and now we’re seeing Outlook/Office 365 also starting to spam them). Impacted

    • Sync images with Shopify/Cart

      Hello, sync images with shopify or other cart, it cuts out the double work of having to upload to shopify/cart and zoho. Thanks

    • Is it Possible to Modify Standard Report Urls

      Is there a way to permanently modify standard report Urls? Use case: Suppose I have a Products report. Showing list as timeline, calendar, or kanban doesn't make sense. Want to hide that from users by adding #Report:Products?zc_ShowAs=false&zc_Print=false

    • Price List

      II want to restrict the items to display in sales, quote, etc for which custom rates are added in price list. How I can do the same in Zoho books

    • External User onboarding for zoho connect is not really intuitive.

      So the external user is sent an invite, which has a button that directs them to login to zoho to view the invite, but if they don't have a zoho account, they cannot access that invite, which seems kinda silly, as there is not real way on for them to create

    • Having trouble fetching contents of Zoho Connect Feeds using the API, requesting alternative API documentation.

      I'm trying to retrieve feed/post data from Zoho Connect using the API but facing challenges with the current documentation. What I've tried: OAuth authentication is working correctly (getting 200 OK responses) Tested multiple endpoints: /pulse/nativeapi/v2/feeds,

    • How to upload file to Connect using API?

      Hi there. I looked at the API documentation and nowhere did it mention how to use the API method to upload a file even though it is mentioned that it is possible to be done so. Please help.

    • Select the task view on the board in the Zoho Connect iPhone app

      Hello. How do I select the task view on the board in the Zoho Connect iPhone app? The Android app has this functionality.

    • Next Page