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Industry Financial Ratios also known as Industry Norms help you to benchmark the performance of your business against your peers.  They identify where you are out performing the industry average and where, more critically, you are lagging behind.

If you are not yet in business, financial ratios can be used to make sure the cash flow portion of your business plan is realistic.

 

They help you to determine whether or not your sales projections are fanciful and profit margins are achievable.  They also provide you with insight into your sector as a whole identifying among other thing what percentage of businesses are actually profitable.

Financial institutions, Accountants and even the Canada Revenue and Taxation Agency all use financial benchmarks to gain perspective on your business' financial performance or expected performance. 

They are a standard measure that can be used to evaluate a business and a prospective entrepreneur.

 

All Financial benchmarks are organized by the North American Industry Classification System (NAICS).  For more information on industry classification see our Research Guide: North American Industry Classification System

Accessing Canadian Financial Benchmarks

There are two principle financial Benchmarks databases in Canada:

Financial Performance Indicators (FPI)