Walmart's Fiscal Calendar — Demystified

Let's start with a few definitions. Walmart defines their fiscal year by way of week numbers. You'll never hear your Buyer or Replenishment Manager refer to a "new mod setting on July 9th" or a "rollback ending on December 12th". It will always be referred to as "Walmart Week 23" or "Walmart Week 46". So, how does Walmart define a week, month, quarter and year?

The Walmart Week:

• A Walmart week begins on Saturday and runs through Friday, midnight CST.

The Walmart Year:

• The Walmart fiscal calendar begins, obviously, in Week 1. The actual calendar date on which this falls varies from year to year, however!
• The technical definition for Week 1 is the week during which February 1st falls on any given fiscal year.
• Example: If February 1st falls on a Tuesday this year, Walmart's Week 1 (the beginning of their fiscal year) actually began that previous Saturday (since all Walmart weeks begin on Saturday!)

The Walmart Month:

• Walmart months are defined as a set group of Walmart weeks.
• The quarters follow a 4-5-4 format, meaning the first month of every quarter has 4 weeks, the second month of every quarter has 5 weeks, and the third month of every quarter has 4 weeks.
• Example: Since February is the first month of the fiscal year, we know that it is the 1st month in the 1st quarter. Following the format above, we know that February must have 4 weeks (remember, it's a 4-5-4 week format per quarter). Therefore, Walmart's month of February is not February 1-28/29, rather it is Walmart Weeks 1-4!

Confused yet?

Don't worry, it gets much easier once you pour over our downloadable, printable calendar!