There are four Quarters in a Year:

First three months of the year is first quarter, next three months belongs to second Quarter and so on.

Usually, when we prepare a Quarterly Report (for a period of three months based on the table above) we use date-range value to filter the required data for the report.

For example: To prepare Sales Report for the Second Quarter of Sales Year 2017 we will set the date range from April 1st, 2017 to June 30, 2017 as data filtering criteria in a SELECT Query. Probably we may use a Date-Picker control on the parameter entry Form to make it easier to pick and set the date values, rather than typing the date range manually.

If the Report preparation procedure is created on the above fixed pattern then the task can be made easier by creating a small Function and use it on the data filtering Query

GetQrtr() Function Code is given below:

Public Function GetQrtr(ByVal mPeriod As Date) As Integer

Dim mMonth As Integer

On Error GoTo GetQrtr_Err

mMonth = Month(Nz(mPeriod, 0))

If mMonth > 0 Then
    GetQrtr = Choose(mMonth, 1, 1, 1, 2, 2, 2, 3, 3, 3, 4, 4, 4)
else
    GetQrtr = 0
End If

GetQrtr_Exit:
Exit Function

GetQrtr_Err:
GetQrtr = 0
Resume GetQrtr_Exit
End Function

The GetQrtr() Function takes the date value as parameter. The Month() Function extracts the month number from date and uses it as parameter for the Choose() Function to pick the correct Quarter Number from it's list.

When the month value is 1,2 or 3 the GetQrtr() function returns 1 to the calling procedure. The Function can be called from a Query, from other Functions, from Form control or from a Report Control by passing date as parameter. When date value passed to the function belongs to April, May, June will returns 2. These months belongs to the Second Quarter of the Year. Dates from next three months returns 3 and so on.

Let us see how we can use this Function in a Sales Query to extract data for Second Quarter 2017 Sales Report. Sample SQL of a data filtering Query is given below:

SELECT SALESTABLE.*
FROM SALESTABLE
WHERE (((SALESTABLE.SALESMANCODE="ABC") AND ((GetQrtr(([SALESDATE]))=2));

The GetQrtr() function extracts the Quarter number from all the Sales Record Dates, based on the Values we have lined up in the Choose() Function inside the GetQrtr() Function, compares them with the criteria parameter value 2 and filters the records for that period.

You may setup a Parameter Variable within the Query so that it will prompt for the criteria value, when the Query Runs, and can input the required value directly to filter the data for report.

When Financial Year is from April to March next Year (Jan - Mar become 4th quarter) still the filter criteria will be 1 to extract the data for the fourth quarter. The report heading Labels will indicate that the report is for the fourth quarter of Financial Year 2017-18.