Quarter or year to date: picking the right figure in a 10-Q.

Two columns, one end date

In a 10-Q for the second quarter, the income statement often has a column for the three months and a column for the six months, both ended on the same date. A third-quarter 10-Q does the same with three and nine months. The balance sheet has no such pair: it is a balance at one date.

So the end date alone does not pick the figure. The length of the period does.

Use the length of the period

The SEC Financial Statement Data Sets record the length of each value as a count of quarters, the qtrs field. 1 is one quarter, 2 is six months, 3 is nine months, 4 is a year, and 0 is a balance at a point in time. In the free sample, each fact carries the same count as duration_quarters.

Example: one quarter from a Q2 10-Q

Republic Services filed its Q2 10-Q on 2026-08-07, accession 0001060391-26-000275. The sample task asks for the operating margin for the quarter ended June 30, 2026. Both facts are one-quarter values: operating income of 901000000 USD and revenue of 4430000000 USD. The reference is 20.34 percent. The six-month facts end on the same date, so they are easy to pick up by mistake.

Example: quarter over quarter

A Q2 10-Q does not usually show the first quarter on its own. The Texas Pacific Land task takes the June quarter's revenue, 246059000 USD, from the Q2 10-Q, accession 0001811074-26-000058, and the March quarter's revenue, 236818000 USD, from the Q1 10-Q, accession 0001811074-26-000035. The change is 9.24 million USD.

Example: year over year

The prior-year quarter is usually in the same filing. The Sylvamo task uses its Q1 10-Q, accession 0001856485-26-000019, for revenue of 755000000 USD in the quarter ended March 31, 2026 and 821000000 USD in the quarter ended March 31, 2025. The change is -8.04 percent. Taking the wrong column flips the sign.

Fiscal quarters are not calendar quarters

Super Micro Computer's 10-Q for the quarter ended March 31, 2026 is tagged as fiscal year 2026, fiscal period Q3. A question that says "the first quarter of 2026" is ambiguous for a company like that. Tickmark Bench sample questions name the end date, such as "the quarter ended March 31, 2026", rather than a quarter number.

The fourth quarter

A 10-K reports the fiscal year, four quarters. Many companies do not report the fourth quarter on its own, so a fourth-quarter figure may have to be the annual value minus the nine-month value from the Q3 10-Q. Check that both come from the same concept and the same dimensions.

Check your pipeline

Every task in the free sample lists its facts with the end date and duration_quarters, so you can see which column the reference uses. See also six ways to read the wrong number from a 10-Q and how Core is graded. Core, with 149 verified tasks and grade.py, is on the pricing page.