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About the Quarterly Financial Report Survey

Purpose:

To provide comprehensive and timely information on business financial conditions. This information is an important component in the overall assessment of the health of our Nation's economy. The information you provide will be used to prepare national measures of corporate profits and to formulate fiscal and monetary policy.

Coverage:

Currently, the Quarterly Financial Report Survey covers the following NAICS sectors:

Content:

The Quarterly Financial Report Program publishes up-to-date aggregate statistics on the financial results and position of U.S. corporations. Based upon a sample survey, the QFR presents estimated statements of income and retained earnings, balance sheets, and related financial and operating ratios for manufacturing corporations with assets of $250,000 and over, and mining, wholesale trade and retail trade corporations with assets of $50 million and over or above industry specific receipt cut-off values. The statistical data are classified by industry and by asset size.

Frequency:

The survey is conducted quarterly. Companies report for each of their fiscal quarters and are included in published calendar quarter estimates depending on the month their books are closed. QFR data are published for each calendar quarter approximately 75 days after the end of the first, second, and third calendar quarters and approximately 95 days after the end of the fourth calendar quarter. Estimates are made for 36 types of business activities in the manufacturing, mining, wholesale trade, and retail trade sectors. Each publication includes information on the most recently closed quarters for manufacturing, mining, and wholesale trade. Data for retail trades are available on a one-quarter lag basis, except in the fourth quarter, when the 95 days publication period permits synchronized presentation.

Methods:

Each year, a QFR sampling frame is built from an annual IRS file of corporate entities which are required to file Form 1120, 1120A or 1120S. This frame is stratified by industry classification and size of total assets and gross receipts prior to sampling.

Nearly all corporations whose operations are within scope of the QFR and have total assets of $250 million and over are included in the sample with certainty and are canvassed every quarter. Simple random samples are selected from the eligible noncertainty units in the remaining industry-by-size strata. The sample in each cell is divided systematically into four panels that are introduced over the next year. Each noncertainty panel is in the survey for eight successive quarters. Each quarter, one noncertainty panel is rotated out and a new panel is rotated into the sample. This means that the noncertainty sample for adjacent quarters is seven-eights identical; one half of the sample is the same for quarters ending one year apart.

Products:

The Quarterly Financial Report is available approximately 75 days following the end of the first, second and third-calendar quarters, and approximately 95 days after the end of the fourth-calendar quarter. The press release schedule for 2008 is as follows:

4Q07 - March 31, 2008*, 1Q08 - June 16, 2008, 2Q08 - September 8, 2008, 3Q08 - December 8, 2008

1Q08 - July 9, 2008, 2Q08 - October 8, 2008, 3Q08 - TBA (January 2009)
*Includes Retail Trade

To view the current release, please click here.

The Quarterly Financial Report publishes information on the most recently closed quarter for manufacturing, mining, and wholesale trade corporations, and the preceding quarter's data for retail trade corporations, except in the fourth quarter when the data are published together and is available on our web site the day of the press release.

To view the current report, please click here.

Uses:

The Commerce Department regularly employs QFR data as an important component in determining corporate profits for the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) and National Income estimates; the Federal Reserve Board uses QFR data to assess industrial debt structure, liquidity, and profitability; the Treasury Department estimates corporate tax liability through use of the QFR data; the Council of Economic Advisers and Congressional Committees utilize key indicators derived from QFR data as they design economic policies and draft legislation; the FTC utilizes the series as a basic reference point in analyzing the financial performance of American industries; and banking institutions and financial analysts draw upon the series in making investment evaluations.

Related Programs:

Annual Capital Expenditure Survey

Business Expenses Survey

2002 Economic Census

Company Statistics

E-Stats

Latest Economic Indicators

Service Annual Survey