Performance Report

The Performance Report is at the heart of the Firmrater system and shows you how your firm is performing compared to a group of similar businesses in the UK. It includes over 40 indicators and uses a 5-star rating system to help you identify where your firm is performing well and where you may be able to make improvements.

The report is divided into 6 sections, each covering a different aspect of your firm:

• Overall performance rating
• Business environment
• Financial
• Operational
• Staff
• Premises

Selecting the filters for your Performance Report, or you can leave them as they are and just click the “Generate Performance Report” button.

The first tab shows your position in the group for 6 key metrics and a summary of the business environment in your industry.

The Financial tab shows your financial performance against the best, worst and average for the group, along with a 5 star rating to help you see quickly how your firm is doing relative to the group.

The Operational tab shows general information about your firm compared to the group, such as opening times, website details and type of business entity.

The Staff tab shows details about your employees, the revenue they generate and their costs relative to the group.

The Premises tab shows key performance indicators for your business premises such as turnover and net profit per square foot.

The Performance Report is quick and easy to run once you have opened an account, submitted your business information and paid the subscription fee (if applicable).

1. Log in to your Firmrater account and you will see your personal 'Dashboard' page;
2. Click the 'Performance Report' button;
3. Check or change the report filters and then press 'Generate Performance Report'.

The report will be displayed on screen within seconds. You can also download it in CSV format for use in a spreadsheet or in PDF format for viewing and printing.

You can amend the filters and re-run Performance Reports as often as you like to get a sense of how your firm is performing against a range of different groups. You can even enter a different postcode to see how your firm might perform if it was located elsewhere in the UK. This is a very useful research tool if you’re thinking about relocating or opening a new branch elsewhere in the UK - but remember the economic conditions may be very different.

Your Performance Report is calculated using the business information you have provided along with information entered by other firms in the database with the same primary business activity as your firm. You can change the report filters to refine the group using the following criteria:

• Match up to 4 additional (optional) business activities;
• Limit the group to firms within a maximum distance from your postcode;
• Change your postcode to see how your business might compare elsewhere in the UK;
• Specify a minimum and maximum turnover range;
• Specify a minimum and maximum headcount range;
• Specify a minimum and maximum business age;
• Select a reporting date in the past if you want to generate a historic report.

When you change the filters you can click a button to see how many firms (including yours) are in the group. This helps you find a balance between group size and the best matches to your firm.

We recommend reviewing your business information and running a Performance Report at least monthly so that you can keep an eye on your performance and monitor it over time. This will help you stay up to date and track the impact of any changes that you make. Even if you don’t update your own business information, your performance ratings will change depending on the other firms in your group.

The full list of ratings in the Performance Report is:

Overall Rating (Position in Group)

1. Return on investment
2. Net profit margin
3. Turnover per head
4. Net profit per head
5. Turnover per square foot
6. Net profit per square foot

Business Environment

7. Business optimism outlook
8. Growth outlook
9. Firms in profit vs loss

Financial

10. Return on investment
11. Net profit margin
12. Current ratio
13. Quick ratio
14. Cost ratio (cost/turnover)
15. Stock turnover (days)
16. Turnover vs capital employed
17. Owners’ income vs turnover
18. Owners’ income vs net profit
19. Target payment terms (days)
20. Actual payment terms (days)
21. Debt vs turnover
22. Debt vs equity
23. Cash vs debt
24. Cash vs turnover
25. Accounts receivable vs turnover

Premises

26. Rent per square foot (only if leased)
27. Turnover per square foot
28. Net profit per square foot
29. Premises cost vs turnover
30. Tenure of premises

Operational

31. Business age
32. Opening hours per week
33. Number of days open per week
34. Days of week open
35. Website type
36. Website turnover
37. Promotional costs vs turnover
38. Business entity type
39. Invoice factoring

Staff

40. Turnover per head
41. Net profit per head
42. Staff cost per head
43. Staff cost vs total cost
44. Annual leave per head

Click here to download the Performance Report Guide

If there are more than 100 firms in your selected Performance Report group, your firm’s position will be converted to show its equivalent place out of 100 to make this measure clearer. For example, if your firm was placed 30^th in a group of 200 firms, this would be converted to 15^th out of 100. Note that in groups over 100, there may be more than one firm in each position.