Hello bjung,
Thanks for joining us here in the QuickBooks community. It's awesome that you're working with QuickBooks Desktop Accountant, and I hope it means that you've got some clients you're working with as well. Details like the fiscal year can definitely make a difference when it comes to viewing your reports, so I want to make sure you have the steps to take care of this, and I'm here to help.
The research you've done so far almost has you where you need to be with changing the fiscal year information in QuickBooks Desktop. While it is completed in the Company Information, the first step to getting there is choosing the Company menu from the top menu bar. Here's a screenshot of the window that should come up next.
![](https://lithium-response-prod.s3.us-west-2.amazonaws.com/intuit.response.lithium.com/RESPONSEIMAGE/86e886c8-eb42-4b0a-b2f4-adf2b43fd0f8.default.png)
You'll notice in my screenshot that I'm also using QuickBooks Desktop Premier Accountant 2021 for my test, so you should be able to bring up this screen. I've circled where on the window you can find the fiscal year information. Choose the month you need, then click OK when you're done making changes to these settings. Give that a shot and let me know how it goes.
As for period reporting versus monthly reporting, it sounds like you mean you'd like to run your reports for certain timeframes rather than month-by-month. It's possible to change the date filters when you run reports, and you can even memorize reports, which means the filters and settings you've picked for it are saved for you to use later. Here are some articles about working with reports in QuickBooks Desktop.
If you're still having trouble with the fiscal year settings or what I've mentioned about reports isn't quite what you're looking for, feel free to reply to this thread with more detail and even screenshots. That'll help ensure we're on the same page, and I can get let you know what's available in QuickBooks Desktop.
Take care!