Year passes quickly, day after day, month after month. It is customary to divide into seasons, and seasons into months. But the year can be split into other periods of time.
The word "quarter" is borrowed from the German language (quartal), which is derived from the Latin quārtā - fourth part, quarter.
There are 12 months in total in a year, which are usually divided into four seasons - winter, spring, summer and autumn. However, the quarterly division is different.
When dividing the year into quarters, its times do not matter. It should be noted that there are no gaps between the quarters.
It is also worth paying attention to the stress that falls on the second "a": quarter. Sometimes you can hear a different pronunciation of a word with an emphasis on the first vowel. Accountants can say this, explaining that they want to distinguish the value of a quarter as a quarter of a year from the value as a part of a city.
Division into quarters
Dividing a year into quarters is a division into four equal time intervals. Thus, each quarter represents three months. The first quarter starts on January 1st and lasts until March 31st. The second quarter is the period from April 1st to June 30th, the third quarter is from August 1st to October 31st and the last quarter is from November 1st to December 31st. The quarters of the year are marked with Roman numerals: I, II, III and IV quarters. The length of the quarters is different and varies from 90 to 92 days.
Today we use the Gregorian calendar, which is quite accurate from the point of view of astronomy. However, his reform has been talked about for several decades in order to regroup the days of the year. In this case, it would be possible to equalize the length of months, quarters and semesters and correct the fact that a week begins in one month and ends in another.
In 1923, a special committee on reform issues at the League of Nations was created, and after World War II, this problem began to be discussed in the UN Economic and Social Council. With all the number of calendar projects, the main attention is paid to the version proposed by Gustave Armelin in 1888. According to his project, in a calendar year of 12 months, as now, the year is divided into 4 quarters of 91 days. The first month has 31 days, the other two have 30. The first day of the year and quarter is Sunday, each quarter ends on Saturday and contains 13 weeks.
The calendar project was approved in the USSR, France, India, Yugoslavia and several other countries. However, the UN General Assembly has postponed its consideration and approval, now terminating activities on this issue.
What is the division into quarters for?
Quarters are used for reporting for all institutions, from public authorities to individual entrepreneurs. Reporting for each quarter is submitted in the month following the quarter. For example, reporting for the first quarter is submitted in April.
Quarterly reporting helps to systematize processes such as obtaining licenses, patents, permits and other necessary documentation.
