End of Year (EOY)

EOY stands for the End-of-Year and it is defined as the end of either the calendar year or fiscal year.

The end of the year marks an important point for those at the helm of a company. It’s not only a time for organizing the books and getting tax records straightened out, but also calls for critical reflection on the past year in review.

In this article, I will cover the following:

What does EOY mean?
What is an EOY report?
Benefits of annual reporting

What does EOY mean?

When someone says "EOY", they may be referring to either the calendar year or the fiscal year.

Calendar EOY: The end of the calendar year is defined as December 31st, while the start of the year is January 1st.
Fiscal EOY: The end of the fiscal year is the end of any 12-month accounting period. This can be the same as the calendar year (Dec. 31st), or it can be any other date according to what makes the most sense for the company’s industry, depending on seasonal sales cycles and so on. For example, the fiscal EOY might be a short time after the peak of the festive season, such as February or March.

Whichever year-end system your company’s financial accounting system employs, that's usually your de facto EOY.

End-of-Year is an important point in time for a company’s various departments. Here’s a brief breakdown of what typically happens at year-end in most companies:

Finance/Accounting: Financial statements, taxes, and other accounting activities are finalized. This is known as the “year-end close”.
Sales: Annual sales quotas and commissions are calculated and disbursed along with any bonuses, while performance reviews are completed and shared with the relevant team members (see the Annual Performance Review Template for a proven blueprint you can use for assessing your own sales team).
Marketing: EOY marketing reports are collated and analyzed with a view towards planning and securing the next year’s budget.
Product/Engineering: Product roadmaps are developed for the upcoming year and resources are allocated to achieve the planned product milestones.

What is an EOY report?

At year-end, EOY reports (also called annual or year-end reports) are shared among executives, analysts, investors, and/or shareholders to inform them of the company's overall growth, key metrics, achievements, and challenges over the past year.

You may have an overall company EOY report and one for each department.

For instance, an EOY marketing report for a B2B SaaS company may summarize:

Financial facts detailing budget allocations, goals met/unmet, and total sales performance of the past year (possibly in relation to previous years).
Analysis and interpretation of key benchmarks and metrics such as MRR, CAC, CAC:LTV Ratio, Customer Retention Rate, and others.
Opportunities for growth based on what's worked well, and what remains untapped.
Challenges that need to be addressed in the coming year.
Objectives - i.e. ongoing goals and initiatives.
Key takeaways about the year in review.

Benefits of annual reporting

Annual reporting is an exercise that can strengthen your resolve for the coming year by putting everything you've done to date (including successes and failures) into a big-picture perspective.

When done with care and thoughtful preparation, EOY reports allow for important reflection on whether strategic and tactical decisions were good or bad.

Unfortunately, in many organizations, EOY reporting is used as a way to promote a departments accomplishments, rather than learn from it's failures.

From a go-to-market perspective, before you can look back on your end of year results, develop your Sales Forecast Template and your Marketing Budget Template. That's what we then track our results against throughout the year to understand how we're doing against our projections.