PIA Ratio Studies and Financial Ratios DashboardA Perfect Match

Profectus, Inc., a national consulting company that helps printing and packaging organizations improve their business, announced today the addition of a Financial Analysis and Ratios Dashboard in the popular CostRatesAdvisor.com budgeted hourly cost rates software.

The financial dashboard features numerous ratios reports and graphs so companies can benchmark their figures to other companies using the Printing Industries of America’s Ratio Studies*.

For over 90 years the PIA Ratios Studies has been the printing industry’s most valuable financial benchmarking tool for strategic management, investment, productivity, and profitability. The PIA Ratio Studies are a compilation of expenses, assets, salaries, and other financial information from hundreds of printing and related graphic arts firms.

Owners, managers, and analysts can use their CostRatesAdvisor financial information as a benchmark against the PIA Ratios’ industry norms and profit leaders. Some of the ratios presented in the Financial Analysis and Ratios Dashboard include:

• Sales & Administrative costs ratios
• Direct Manufacturing costs ratios
• Payroll costs ratios
• Cost per employee ratios
• Cost center and department costs ratios

According to Profectus President Craig Press, “CostRatesAdvisor.com has come to be more than a budgeted hourly cost rates program. It’s an excellent tool for determining the break-even cost of your production equipment and services, setting prices, tracking cost trends, and now benchmarking your financials to other companies.”

Example Report

Three tiered pricing starting at just $128 for the Basic Edition up to $368 for the fully featured Enterprise Edition makes Cost Rates Advisor very affordable for any size company. To find out more about Cost Rates Advisor, visit www.costratesadvisor.com or call 1-888-868-8662



About Cost Rates Advisor
CostRatesAdvisor.com was designed by industry experts to help companies determine the break-even cost of equipment and services. It provides an accurate picture of a company’s true costs so they can confidently and strategically estimate, price, and cost jobs. Cost Rates Advisor is used by organizations throughout North America spanning all industry segments including commercial, digital, mailing, packaging, labels, large format, screen, and in-plant operations. costratesadvisor.com

About Profectus, Inc.
Profectus is a national consulting company that offers a unique spectrum of professional services with a focus on helping printing organizations improve their efficiency, cost effectiveness, customer service, and profitability by implementing best business practices and embracing technology. For over 20 years our consultants have been contributing to the success of small and large organizations throughout North America spanning all industry segments. www.profectus.com



*PIA Financial Ratio Studies are not included with CostRatesAdvisor but are available through the Printing Industries of America.

Printing Industry Performance Metrics

A major contributor for improving a printing business is performance metrics. There are various methodologies and tools for measuring performance including Performance Benchmarks, Key Performance Indicators (KPI's), and Balance Score Cards (BSC).

This is not a new concept. Just do a Google search on the following quotes:

"What gets measured, gets managed" ... 2,780,000 Google results
"You can't manage what you don't measure" ... 170,000,000 Google results
"If you don't measure it, you can't improve it" ... 180,000,000 Google results

The performance of production can be measured by tracking spoilage, efficiency, productivity, and other measurements. Performance metrics are not limited to production. They can also be established for other areas such as order entry, invoicing, and inventory. Baselines and improvement goals should be established for each metric. Metrics can be at the company, department, cost center, or employee level.

The best implementation of performance metrics is one that is tied to incentive programs. Each employee and department should have incentive performance goals relevant to their area. The production incentive program could include efficiency, productivity, spoilage, quality, and profitability. The administrative areas could include average time to get orders into production, cost to process orders, quotes per estimator, and average time or days to invoice customers.

How you measure, collect, and present the information should be easy for employees to grasp. It's best to establish realistic short term goals as well as long term goals. The short terms goals make the long term goals seem more achievable and makes employees more optimistic. The following example Order to Production Throughput Metric is an excellent example of how to implement and present the information.

Example Order to Production Throughput Metric

 

Here are some performance metrics you may want to consider implementing in your business.

- Estimate/quote process time
- Number of customer complaints
- Orders per pre-production employee
- Sales per employee
- Sales, costs, and profits by product category
- Administrative cost per order
- Invoicing process time
- Administrative cost per invoice
- Spoilage hours and costs by reason
- Spoilage as a percentage of sales
- Direct and indirect expenses per employee
- Total and average value of invoices
- Receivables Days Outstanding

If you're interested in learning how Profectus' Printing Industry Business Consultants can improve your organization, contact Profectus for a FREE phone consultation at 1-888-868-8662. http://www.profectus.com/services/bp.htm


About Profectus
Profectus printing industry business consultants are committed to helping printing and packaging organizations implement best business practices and maximize the value of their information technology investments. Profectus has been contributing to the success of small and large printing and packaging organizations throughout the United States and Canada since 1993. Our consultants provide expertise in management information systems, estimating, customer service, order entry, job planning, purchasing, inventory, production management, scheduling, cost accounting, invoicing, and other administrative practices.