The Apple fiscal calendar is the financial calendar Apple uses to organize its accounting year, built from four 13-week quarters rather than standard calendar months. It defines when Apple’s fiscal months and quarters begin and end, and it determines the schedule on which App Store developers receive their payouts.
How the Apple fiscal calendar works
Apple’s fiscal year runs for 364 days, or exactly 52 weeks, instead of the 365 days of the Gregorian calendar. Those 52 weeks are divided into four equal quarters of 13 weeks each. Within every quarter, the fiscal months follow a 5-4-4 pattern: the first month is five weeks long, and the two that follow are four weeks each.
| Position in the quarter | Fiscal month length |
|---|---|
| First month | 5 weeks (35 days) |
| Second month | 4 weeks (28 days) |
| Third month | 4 weeks (28 days) |
Because 52 weeks fall one day short of a full solar year, the calendar drifts slightly over time. To realign it, Apple adds a 53rd week to the fiscal year roughly every five to six years, most recently in 2023. Apple’s fiscal year ends on the last Saturday of September, so each new fiscal year begins in late September or early October.
Why Apple uses a fiscal calendar
Building the year out of whole weeks keeps every quarter the same length, which makes financial results directly comparable from one period to the next. This 4-4-5 style of accounting is common among retailers and large corporations because it removes the distortion caused by calendar months of unequal length and by weekends falling differently in each period.
Why the Apple fiscal calendar matters for app developers
For anyone earning revenue from in-app purchases on the App Store, the fiscal calendar is what dictates when the money arrives. Apple groups your sales by fiscal month and issues payouts roughly 33 days after each fiscal month closes, with payments usually landing on a Thursday. Because fiscal months do not align with calendar months, the exact payout dates shift slightly from year to year.
You can view the full schedule, with the exact payout date for every fiscal month, in the detailed Apple fiscal calendar, which can also be added to Google Calendar or downloaded as a PDF.
Apple fiscal quarters at a glance
Apple numbers its quarters from Q1 to Q4 starting in the autumn, which is why Apple’s Q1 covers the holiday shopping season rather than the start of the calendar year:
| Fiscal quarter | Approximate calendar months |
|---|---|
| Q1 | October – December |
| Q2 | January – March |
| Q3 | April – June |
| Q4 | July – September |