Comparing Your Business Performance with Others
Comparing Your Business Performance with Others
The Financial Performance Data Tool, found on Industry Canada’s Website, is a fantastic way to find industry-specific income statement and balance sheet data for both small and medium sized businesses. This GoForth Guide will take you step-by-step through the SMEB Tool and show you how to estimate the operating costs of your business, view financial performance averages in your industry and enter your own data to see how your business compares to the competition.
Step 1: Go to https://www.ic.gc.ca/eic/site/pp-pp.nsf/eng/home.
Step 2: Select Create a Report on the left-hand side of the main page.
Step 3: Select from pull-down menus for the box options. Choose the options that best support your data search.
When deciding whether to select “unincorporated businesses”, “incorporated businesses” or “all businesses”, note that not all types of businesses report on the four benchmarking sections, which are:
- selected revenue/expense items;
- balance sheet items;
- financial ratios; and
- profitable vs. non-profitable businesses
For more information on available data per business type, see the summary chart available on the Financial Performance Data website.
Step 4: Enter your NAICS number in the box provided (see GoForth’s Getting Started Guide - Finding your Industry if you don’t yet know your classification code).
You can also opt to explore data using the broader search option provided under “Browse”. Using the pull-down menu, select the industry that best describes your business operation.
Hit “Create Report” when done.
Step 5: *If you’re preparing a Customized Report, you’ll now be promoted to enter your financial information in the spaces provided. Once you’ve completed the data entry, click “Add my Data to the Report.”
Step 6: Next, decide which portion of the industry you will use as comparables. Your choices are:
Lower Half – 50% of businesses with lowest reported operating revenue
Upper Half – 50% of businesses with highest reported operating revenue
Bottom Quartile - 25% of businesses with lowest reported operating revenue
Lower Middle - 25% of businesses with reported operating revenue above cut-off for bottom quartile and below median revenue level
Upper Middle - 25% of businesses with reported operating revenue above the median revenue level but below cut-off for top quartile
Top Quartile - 25% of businesses with highest reported operating revenue
You can select the half or quartile that best reflects your own operating revenue to get a more accurate benchmark or you can select them all.
When you’ve made your selection, hit “Create Report.”
Step 7: The completed report is now ready. If it’s been customized, your data will appear beside the industry data you’ve selected as comparable.
If you need help understanding how to read the data presented, visit “How to use Financial Performance Data” at the following link: http://www.ic.gc.ca/eic/site/pp-pp.nsf/eng/h_pm00002.html - 4 and select Report Page.
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