Get the Quarter From a Date

Excel & Google Sheets

How it works

MONTH pulls the month number from the date, and dividing by 3 maps months onto quarters: July is 7 ÷ 3 = 2.33, and ROUNDUP takes that to 3 — third quarter. The trick works for every month: 1–3 round up to 1, 4–6 to 2, 7–9 to 3, 10–12 to 4. Gluing "Q" on the front with & produces the familiar Q3 label. This assumes calendar quarters starting in January; if your fiscal year starts in another month, shift the month number before dividing, or use a small 12-row lookup table, which is easier to audit.

MONTH(A2)

The month number, 1–12.

/3

Maps months onto quarter boundaries: 2.33 for July.

ROUNDUP(…,0)

Rounds up to the whole quarter number, 1–4.

"Q"&

Prefixes the number so the cell reads "Q3".

When to use it

Use it to tag deals by close quarter, group invoices for quarterly VAT or sales-tax filings, or build quarter columns for pivot tables and budget-versus-actual reports.

Common mistakes

• ✕Using ROUND instead of ROUNDUP.

  ✓ROUND(7/3,0) is 2, putting July in Q2. Only ROUNDUP maps the month ranges correctly — the round *up* is the whole mechanism.

• ✕Company fiscal year doesn't start in January.

  ✓This formula gives calendar quarters. If FY starts in July, July must be Q1 — shift the month before dividing or use a 12-row lookup table.

• ✕Grouping by quarter across years.

  ✓Q3 2025 and Q3 2026 merge into one bucket. Include the year: ="Q"&ROUNDUP(MONTH(A2)/3,0)&" "&YEAR(A2).