I file reports that cover monthly periods of time. I thought that the heading at the top that says "Month ending February" would refer to the report including all of February. (I am writing this in February.) So I would complete it on March 1st or so.
It depends on the emphasis: "month ending" as one phrase means the end of the month in question, but if I emphasize "ending", it could mean, the month that ends when February begins. That to me is wrong.
Which is correct? I think the heading of the report should be changed to just say "Month: February" and leave the "ending" thing out of it.
Best Answer
“Month ending” means up to and including the last day of the month. In some months that is the 28th, the 29th, the 30th, or the 31st. So the catch-all “month ending” can be used in any month.
The reason the “ending” is in there is to tell you specifically that the report is for the complete month. A “February report” might be an incomplete report that was made on February 21st and only covers February 1 through February 20th. It would have to be amended with data from the 21st through the end of the month to be a report that could be described as being “Month ending, February.”
At the end of the year you would have 12 reports:
… and that would identify them as all belonging to a set.
If you had this instead:
… it is not as clear that these are all part of a set of complete-month reports. I would have to read down the list and recognize that all 12 do in fact represent the end of the month. And the leap year in February would be ambiguous in many cases. February 2016 has 29 days. If you turned in a “28th of February” report this month, I would wonder if it is a full month, or did you only do the report up until the 28th and forget it is a leap year.
So “month end” is actually a simple way to identify complete-month reports as being complete-month reports.