Happy New Financial Year to those of you in jurisdictions with a fiscal year that starts in July.
As if there aren't enough challenges in international commerce, the world is even divided on when to start the clock, and there are several different version of the financial year currently in operation.
Much of the world uses the calendar year for accounting and tax purposes, but a large number uses July-June.
More intriguing are those nations in which the calendar year runs from April 1 to March 31.
Sweden is among the most liberal in terms of accounting years, with organisations allowed to nominate any month to start its financial year, although most choose between January, May, July or September. And then there's Ireland, which chose April 5th as the end of its tax year. Thankfully, in 2001, that country aligned itself with the rest of Europe and now follows the January-December model.