4-5-4 Calendar

The 4-5-4 Calendar is a retail fiscal organization method that divides the year into months based on a 4-week, 5-week, 4-week pattern per quarter, standardizing the fiscal year for consistent performance analysis and comparison.

The 4-5-4 Calendar is a common method of organizing the retail fiscal year used by many retailers, primarily in the United States. This calendar is a creation of the National Retail Federation (NRF) and is designed to help standardize the fiscal year for retail businesses to allow for consistent comparisons and performance analysis.

The 4-5-4 Calendar breaks the year into months based on a 4-week, 5-week, 4-week pattern per quarter. This results in each quarter having 13 weeks, which equals 52 weeks total for the year. However, because a typical calendar year actually contains 52 weeks and one day (or two days for leap years), every few years an extra week is added to the fiscal calendar. This 53rd week is added typically to the end of the fiscal year to keep the calendar aligned with the seasonal retail cycle.

The consistency provided by the 4-5-4 Calendar helps in financial planning and management for retailers. It allows for more comparable year-over-year data, as each week, month, and quarter can be compared like-for-like, removing variations caused by differing numbers of weekends or trading days in comparable periods, which can significantly affect retail performance.