Quarterly Financial Report - About the QFR Survey

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Quarterly Financial Report
About the Quarterly Financial Report

Purpose
The Quarterly Financial Report (QFR) has collected and published quarterly aggregate statistics on the financial results and position of U.S. corporations since 1947.

History
QFR's origin dates back to World War II, when the responsibility for collecting data relating to economic activity in the U.S. was in the hands of the Office of Price Administration (OPA). At the conclusion of the war, the QFR was transferred to the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) and the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), which jointly administered the survey. In 1971 the FTC took over sole responsibility for administering the QFR. QFR was transferred to the U.S. Census Bureau in 1982.

The QFR converted from SIC to NAICS in Fourth Quarter 2001, restating Fourth Quarter 2000 to First Quarter 2001 in NAICS. The QFR expanded to include Selected Service Industries 511-512, 515, 517-519, 541 (except 5411 Legal Services) in Fourth Quarter 2010. The QFR began releasing retail trade together with manufacturing, mining, wholesale trade, and selected service industries in First Quarter 2016.

Coverage
Currently, the QFR covers the following industry sectors, as defined by the North American Industry Classification System (NAICS):
Mining: 211-213
Manufacturing: 311-316, 321-327, 331-337, 339
Wholesale Trade: 423-425
Retail Trade: 441-448, 451-454
Selected Service Industries: 511-512, 515, 517-519, 541 (except 5411 Legal Services)

Corporations are considered in-scope for QFR if they meet certain size thresholds. Manufacturing corporations are in-scope if they have domestic assets of $5 million and over. Mining, wholesale trade, retail trade, and selected service industries are in-scope if they have domestic assets of $50 million and over.

Frequency
The QFR survey is conducted quarterly. Corporations 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 released for the calendar quarter approximately 75 days after the end of the first, second, and third calendar quarters, and approximately 90 days after the end of the fourth calendar quarter. The extended fourth quarter is to accommodate annual reporting obligations and include holiday sales. The following table displays the four reporting quarters by industry sector in terms of the month in which any selected corporation's fiscal quarter ends:

QFR Quarter	Manufacturing, Mining, Wholesale Trade, and Selected Service Industries	Retail Trade
First	January, February, or March	February, March, or April
Second	April, May, or June	May, June, or July
Third	July, August, or September	August, September, or October
Fourth	October, November, or December	November, December, or January

Methods
The QFR collects data electronically and by a mail survey. Large corporations in manufacturing, mining, wholesale trade, retail trade, information services, and professional and technical services (except legal services) industries receive a long form. Small and medium sized manufacturing corporations receive a short form. The sample frame of firms is updated annually from federal income tax records. Corporations with over $250 million in assets may be included in the QFR program with certainty, based on industry-specific asset cutoff values. Certainty corporations remain in the sample every quarter until they become out of scope. The noncertainty corporations are stratified by industry and asset size, and a simple random sample is selected from each industry-by-size stratum. Each quarter, one-eighth of the sample panel is replaced. Corporations selected in the sample report for 8 consecutive quarters.

Products
A press release is issued concurrent with each QFR data release, summarizing the results contained within the publication. Press releases are issued in both PDF and Excel formats, and are available on this web site in Historical Data. Each QFR publication includes information on the most recently closed quarters for manufacturing, mining, wholesale trade, selected service industries, and retail trade. Publications are issued in both PDF and Excel formats, and are available on this web site in Historical Data. Historical QFR data are available in Excel format on this web site in Historical Data.

Uses of the Data
The QFR data are a primary source for current estimates of corporate profits for the Nation's Gross Domestic Income Accounts. QFR data are widely used by government agencies, domestic and foreign businesses, financial analysts, researchers, trade associations, and banking institutions. Uses include assessing industrial debt structure, liquidity, and profitability; estimating corporate tax liability; designing economic policies and drafting legislation; making investment evaluations; and studying economic trends.

Legal Authority and Confidentiality
Title 13 of the United States Code, Section 91, authorizes the collection and requires that financial statistics of business operations be collected and published quarterly. Title 13, United States Code, Section 9, requires the Census Bureau to keep respondents information CONFIDENTIAL and to use responses only to produce statistics. The Census Bureau is not permitted to publicly release responses in a way that could identify a business, organization or institution. Per the Federal Cybersecurity Enhancement Act of 2015, submitted data are protected from cybersecurity risks through screening of the systems that transmit the data.