For instance, in Q1, you may have a higher gross profit margin than in Q4, even though you earned more money (from a dollar amount perspective) in Q4. Additionally, ratios allow you to compare your company to others in your industry.
Just because a company earns more profit doesn’t mean it’s financially healthy. Margin ratios are a far better predictor of health and long-term growth than mere dollar figures.
Below, we’ll look at how you can turn things like gross and net profit into ratios so that you can better analyze your company’s financial health. One ratio is not better than the other. All three will help give you an accurate look at the inner-workings of your business.
Gross profit margin ratio
If you sell physical products, gross margin allows you to hone in on your product profitability. Your total gross profit is sales revenue minus your cost of goods sold. Cost of goods sold represents how much your company paid to sell products during a given period.
In other words, it’s profit after deducting direct materials, direct labor, inventory, and product overhead. It does not consider your general business expenses. The formula to calculate the gross profit margin ratio is:
Gross Profit Margin Ratio = (Gross Profit ÷ Sales) × 100
If the gross profit margin is high, it means that you get to keep a lot of profit relative to the cost of your product. One of the primary things you want to concern yourself with is the stability of this ratio.
Your gross margins shouldn’t fluctuate drastically from one period to the other. The only thing that should cause a severe fluctuation would be if the industry that you’re part of experiences a widespread change that directly impacts your pricing policies or cost of goods sold.
Operating profit margin ratio
The operating margin provides you with a good look at your current earning power. Unlike gross profit, which you would prefer to be stable, an increase in the operating profit margin illustrates a healthy company. The formula to calculate the operating margin is:
Operating Profit Margin Ratio = (Operating Income ÷ Sales) × 100
The operating margin gives you a good look at how efficient you are. If you’re looking to compare your returns to others in the industry, this is the best ratio to do so, as it shows your ability to turn sales into pre-tax profits. Many individuals in corporate finance find this to be a much more objective evaluation tool than the net profit margin ratio.
One of the things that can keep this ratio stagnant is an increase in operating expenses. If you suspect that some operating costs are creeping up, you should perform a comparative analysis of your operating expenses.
A comparative analysis is a side-by-side percentage comparison of two or more years of data. It’s a little more time-consuming than a basic ratio calculation, but it’s not too bad if you can export the data from your accounting software.
After you plug in the numbers, scan your comparative analysis for the biggest percentage changes over time. Doing so will allow you to identify the reason for the expense increase and determine if it’s worth being concerned about.
Net profit margin ratio
Net profit margin, sometimes referred to as just “profit margin,” is the big-picture view of your profitability. Some industries — like financial services, pharmaceuticals, medical, and real estate — have sky-high profit margins, while others are more conservative. Use industry standards as a benchmark, and perform an internal year-over-year comparison to assess your performance. The formula to calculate the net profit margin ratio is:
Net Profit Margin Ratio = (Net Income ÷ Sales) × 100
Net profit margin is similar to operating profit margin, except it accounts for earnings after taxes. It demonstrates how much profit you can extract from your total sales.
Break-even analysis
Your break-even point is the point at which expenses and revenues are the same. You’re not making money at your break-even point, but you’re not losing money either. You should take time to measure your break-even point to determine how much “breathing room” you have in case things turn south.
As a business owner, you need to plan for the unexpected. Perhaps you lose access to raw materials because of a natural disaster. Or one of your manufacturers suffers a warehouse fire and can no longer provide you with the goods you need. Whatever the case, knowing the break-even point will let you know how much you can afford to lose before you are no longer a profitable company.
You can calculate the break-even point for various components of the business. For instance, you can measure the break-even point as a figure of sales. The formula to do so is:
Break-Even Point Sales = Fixed Expenses + Variable Expenses
You could also measure your break-even point against units sold. The method to do so is:
Break-Even Point for Units Sold = Fixed Expenses ÷ (Unit Sales Price – Unit Variable Expenses)
Running these figures allows you to determine how profitable you’ll remain in the future were something to happen to your company.