Change Fiscal Year QB Desktop

Thanks for reaching out to the Community, Operation Nightwatch. I appreciate your detailed information.

You can create budgets for shorter than a year. While QuickBooks primarily focuses on fiscal year budgeting, you can customize reports and budgets to track finances against a specific timeframe, such as a quarter, or a few months.

Here's how:
 

1. Create a budget.
   • Go to the Company menu, then Planning & Budgeting and click Set Up Budgets.
   • Hit Create New Budget.
   • Choose a fiscal year.
   • Pick Profit and Loss or Balance Sheet.
   • Select Next & Finish.
2. Budget for a specific period.
   • Use your Budget Overview report to show the budget for your entire fiscal year.
   • Customize the date range on your Budget vs. Actuals report to match the period you want to track. This will show you your actual performance against the budget for that period.
3. Use customization options if necessary.
   • You can create multiple budgets, including separate budgets for different periods.
   • Choose to pre-fill a budget with data from previous years, or enter your own values manually.
   • Subdivide budgets by class, customer, or location.
4. Reporting.
   • You can export the Budget Overview and Budget vs. Actuals reports to Excel to help with further analysis and customization.

You can also create budgets from scratch.

I've additionally included a detailed resource about setting up fiscal years which may come in handy moving forward: Year-end guide

Please don't hesitate to send a reply if there's any additional questions. Have a wonderful Thursday!

When I get to Create a New Budget it only gives me 2026. I need 2025-2026.

Thank you for continuing to respond to the thread, operation Nightwatch. For the successful preparation of the 2025-2026 budget, we need to update the Fiscal Year in the Company Information. Allow me to guide you through the process.

Here's how:

1. Navigate to the Company section.
2. Click on My Company.
3. Click the pencil icon in the Company Information.
4. Then, go to Report Information.
5. Choose your preferred start month for the fiscal year (April).
6. Click Okay to confirm.

After updating the Fiscal Year, let's go back and create again a new budget.

1. Return to creating the budget by clicking on Planning and Budgeting.
2. Proceed to Set Up Budgets.
3. Choose the fiscal years 2025-2026.
4. Click Next.
5. Finally, click Finish to confirm your selection.

For more information on creating budgets in QuickBooks Desktop (QBDT), please refer to this article: Create a budget in QuickBooks Desktop.

Furthermore, you can check this article to learn how to handle year-end tasks and get ready for the upcoming year in QuickBooks Desktop: Year-end guide for QuickBooks Desktop.

I'm going to keep this thread active so that you receive prompt assistance with your budget creation. Please remember that the Community forum is always here to support you. 

That was what I needed.  Thank you so much.

Hi there, Nightwatch.

I’m pleased to hear that the information provided by my colleague has addressed your concern regarding budget preparation.

If you need any further assistance, please feel free to reply to this thread or start a new one. Have a great day!

Thank you for this information. I am needing to do the same thing with our company file.