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PODCAST EPISODE (EP10) Analyzing Your Financial Statements Welcome, you’re here at The Beacon, so glad you found us! Prepare to have your Blind Spots Illuminated! Over the last 3 episodes we studied and examined the key financial statements you should be receiving monthly; 1. the balance sheet 2. the income statement or P&L 3. and the Statement of Cash Flows Now, what the heck are you supposed to do with all that information! In this episode we will examine some basic financial statement analysis. Much of this analysis involves calculating ratios from the data contained in the financial reports. As I promised at the very beginning, the math here is very simple…Division, nothing more complex than that! The listener may find it easier to follow this analysis and ratios by printing out the show notes and using them as a reference. Ratios offer points of comparison , which can reveal more than the raw numbers alone. Ratios can help you determine if the numbers are favorable or unfavorable. Ratios themselves can be compared: 1. Over time 2. With projections, and 3. With Industry averages and benchmarks The Questions we are looking to answer are: 1. Can the business pay all of its bills? 2. Did the business make any money? and how much? 3. Can financial performance be improved? Remember our financial analysis provides a good picture of current financial health along with past performance. These numbers are more historical in nature rather than predictive. Although financials can help with planing and tactics, future performance of your practice depends on other critical factors beyond finance including: 1. The ability of Management to react to local economic conditions, market competition and changes. 2. The Experience and Capabilities of the doctors in the practice. 3. The practice’s current financial position. Recall the limitations of financial reports too; 1. Many of the dollar values are estimates at best. 2. The Balance Sheet does not show actual Net Worth. 3. Assets are valued at their Historical cost. Book values contained in these reports represent Original cost less accumulated depreciation. 4. Depreciation expense shown on the Income Statement is only an estimate of the amount of asset used, not the Value of the Asset. To begin our study, we will break down the Financial Ratios into 4 broad categories which can be used to analyze a companies performance; 1. profitability 2. leverage 3. liquidity 4. efficiency PROFITABILITY: a measure of a companies ability to generate sales and control expenses. This answers the question, Did the Practice make Money, and how much? GROSS PROFIT MARGIN PERCENTAGE: GROSS MARGIN = GROSS PROFIT / REVENUE (from the P&L) Recall, Gross Profit = Revenue - COGS or COS Gross Margin Shows the basic profitability of the product or service before expenses are considered. Or, how much the company must pay out in Direct Costs to make the product, or deliver the service. Trends are important here because they can indicate potential problems. Gross Profit trending down could mean that Market pressures and Competition are reducing Pricing Power, or the cost of material and labor are rising. Gross Margin can be an early indicator of favorable or unfavorable trends in the marketplace. OPERATING PROFIT MARGIN PERCENTAGE: OPERATING MARGIN = OPERATING PROFIT (EBIT) / REVENUE (P&L) Recall, Operating Profit = Gross Profit - Operating Expenses Operating Margin indicates how well a company is running its business from an operational standpoint. Or how well the managers are doing their job controlling expenses. Trends are important here too! Downward trend is a warning that COSTS and EXPENSES are rising faster than SALES. NET PROFIT MARGIN PERCENTAGE - the proverbial BOTTOM LINE (P&L) NET MARGIN = NET PROFIT / REVENUE Tells a company how much out of every sales dollar it gets to keep after EVERYTHING else has been paid for - payroll, vendors, lenders, and taxes. RETURN ON ASSETS: Tells you what percentage of every dollar invested in the business is returned to you as profit. ROA = NET PROFIT / TOTAL ASSETS (balance sheet) Remember, these ratios are more powerful when they are tracked over time to establish trend lines. LEVERAGE RATIOS: DEBT VS EQUITY FINANCING Let’s us quantify how a business is financed, or how a business uses debt. The Financial Analyst’s word for debt is LEVERAGE. One can compare this to a Mortgage. A mortgage allows you to purchase and live in a bigger home than you might otherwise be able to afford with your Cash savings alone. Also, the Interest payments on your mortgage debt is deductible from your taxable income making your home even more affordable. When you first take out a Mortgage, and say put down 20%, you are Highly Leveraged! You have more debt than equity. A business is similar in that it can invest in profit generating assets without drawing down its cash reserves and simultaneously deduct the interest payments on this debt from its taxable income. That’s a double win! You should note that BANKERS LOVE to look at your leverage when you apply for a loan, either business or personal. DEBT-to-EQUITY RATIO: DEBT-to-EQUITY RATIO = TOTAL LIABILITIES / SHAREHOLDER’s EQUITY Or, How much debt the company has for every dollar of shareholders equity. INTEREST COVERAGE: INTEREST COVERAGE = OPERATING PROFIT / ANNUAL INTEREST CHARGES Which is a measure of the company’s “interest exposure”, or how much interest it is paying relative to how much it’s making. Shows how easy it will be for a company to pay its interest. A high ratio means the company can take on more debt. LIQUIDITY RATIOS: Can we pay our bills? Can the company meet all its financial obligations, not just debt, but payroll, bank loans, payment to vendors, taxes, etc. Tracking this is critical for small businesses as they are the ones most in danger of running out of cash! This is an easy Ratio to Calculate and Track, it’s called the CURRENT RATIO CURRENT RATIO: measures Current Assets against Current Liabilities CURRENT RATIO = CURRENT ASSETS / CURRENT LIABILITIES We are looking for a Ratio greater than one (1), but a Current Ratio too high means the business is sitting on its CASH rather than investing it or distributing it to shareholders. Finally are the … EFFICIENCY RATIOS: Managing the Balance Sheet Here we will Learn to Manage your Assets and Liabilities; consisting of: Inventory Receivables Payables Property, Plant and Equipment INVENTORY We have 2 metrics here, INVENTORY DAYS and INVENTORY TURNS, both measure how efficiently a company uses its inventory, both are difficult to calculate in a dental office that uses a Modified Cash Basis of Accounting. The concepts are still very important. INVENTORY DAYS - Measures the number of days inventory stays in the system or on the shelfs. While, INVENTORY TURNS- Tells us how many times inventory is turned over and replaced in a year. Or the number of times inventory sold out , or could have sold out, and had to be reordered in a year. The take home point here is… THE LOWER THE INVENTORY DAYS and the HIGHER THE INVENTORY TURNS the BETTER YOUR CASH POSITION. again… Translated, we don’t want Inventory just sitting on shelves. We want it quickly being transformed into product and services and ultimately REVENUE! DENTISTS should take note here! Less inventory, not more is key. This flies in the face of quantity discounts that your vendors offer which works in the opposite direction; INCREASING INVENTORY DAYS and REDUCING INVENTORY TURNS, effectively REDUCING YOUR CASH POSITION! I like to remind dentists that they should image dollar bills, rather than supplies, sitting on their stockroom shelves. A practice should keep just enough inventory on hand for the treatment scheduled. Yes, that is easier said than done, but at least resist, just a little bit, the temptation to buy supplies in large quantities thinking you are saving a lot of money. Instead, you are spending your cash that could be sitting in your bank account, not on the shelfs of your office! This practice becomes even more costly if supplies expire or become outdated. Make sure your vendors will work with you to exchange outdated or soon to expire supplies. That discussion is best had prior to placing an order. RECEIVABLES DAYS SALES OUTSTANDING How fast customers pay their bills. DSO = (ENDING A/R) / (REVENUE/DAY) This metric can be, and should be calculated and tracked monthly! It is very important to monitor how efficiently your office systems can collect outstanding balances. Improving DAYS SALES OUTSTANDING is a FAST TRACT to IMPROVING YOUR CASH POSITION with NO CHANGE IN REVENUE OR COSTS. Again, Dentist’s should take note here and monitor and manage this metric very closely. PAYABLES How long it takes you to pay your invoices or bills. DAYS PAYABLE OUTSTANDING is the cousin to Days Sales Outstanding Days payable outstanding = Ending Accountants Payable / (COGS/day) This is not a metric we will calculate, and track, but important to understand that paying your bills promptly will help to maintain excellent credit. Here, the higher your Days Payable Outstanding the longer you get to keep your money and the better your cash position, but the less happy your vendors are likely to be. This again flies in the face of what many advisors recommend at year end, which is prepaying several months of expenses; ie, credit cards and rent. Accelerating these PAYMENTS REDUCES your CASH POSITION. this is worth repeating again….. If you are prepaying, or paying your invoices early, by all means ask for a prepayment discount from your vendor. PROPERTY, PLANT and EQUIPMENT TURNOVER PPE Turnover = revenue / PPE (balance Sheet) How many dollars of Revenue does each dollar of PPE (hard assets) generate. What is important here is the concept. One wants an increasing PPE Turnover. Translated, that means one wants higher revenue generated for the Hard Assets of the Practice. With this metric in mind consider your practice. Can you answer these questions favorably? * Will that new or bigger office enable you to generate more revenue? * Will that in office milling machine, or intra oral scanner generate greater revenue? greater efficiency? greater productivity? * Will that Cone Beam CT scanner generate more revenue? These are questions a financially knowledgable business owner would have the answers too, or at least consider prior to making a significant capital investment! Consider this the next time you are preparing to make a capital purchase. Please note, Tax Savings are not considered here! One can also calculate TOTAL ASSET TURNOVER Total Asset Turnover = Revenue / Total Assets Here again we want a high Total Asset Turnover Ratio. We can achieve this through a combination of the following: * efficiently using fixed assets * reducing inventory (inventory days and inventory turns) * reducing receivables (DSO) * increasing sales (through volume or pricing) That list is critical and worth repeating. The astute financial manager would concentrate efforts on using fixed assets efficiently, reducing inventory and reducing receivables as well as increasing sales. WHAT RATIOS ARE MOST IMPORTANT TO YOU! Built into your income statement are ratios for each line item by percent of revenue as well as dollars. These percent of revenue are easier to track over time to establish trend lines. This internal standard is the best way to monitor your progress and management of expenses. Making sense of your expenses begins with accurate accounting which requires an organized chart of accounts. This does not always exist, as many dental offices just use the standard chart of accounts that comes with quickbooks. One of the very first tasks we at OmniStar do when consulting with an office is to better organize and categorize the chart of accounts so financial reports will be easier to understand , more meaningful and more insightful to you, the user. One final Ratio to Consider is Return on Assets, which can be broken down into two ratios we have already examined: * Net Profit Margin and Asset Turnover. (Net Income/Revenue) X (Revenue/Assets) = Net Income/ Assets = ROA Simply stated ROA equals Net Profit Margin X Asset Turnover! This is Key Point because it contains the secret formula to driving greater Return on Assets, a Pivotal Business Metric. One can increase your ROA with 2 tactics: Increase Net Profit Margin by: Raising fees or Delivering services more efficiently, and/or Increasing asset turnover by: reducing average inventory (inventory days and inventory turns) reducing receivables (DSO) reducing the purchase of additional assets Market forces and competition may prevent you from improving Net Profit Margin. Working on your Balance Sheet Levers of Inventory, Receivables, and Assets could be your best move to improving your financial results. SUMMARY In summary we have examined some basic metrics used to analyze your Financial Statements. These metrics are almost all ratios which allow comparisons and benchmarking to other businesses and practices as well as establishing trends within your own practice. Time spent in the Analysis of your financial reports should answers the questions; 1. can we pay our bills 2. are we making money 3. how can we improve performance. One should note that there is NO metric for OVERHEAD, a KPI (Key Performance Indicator) that dentists like to track, compare and brag about with their colleagues. OVERHEAD is an imprecise term, whose definition changes depending on who is doing the analysis. Questions like, are doctors salaries included? what about doctor perks? CE? Automobiles? Retirement Plan Contributions for Staff? and Doctors? This is a perfect example of how financial metrics can be distorted. Eliminating many of these may give the false impression that your overhead is low, which may not, in fact be true. Operating Margin may be the best estimate of overhead, as it includes Indirect Costs as well as General, Office and Administrative Expenses. Also note that TAXES are not emphasized in this analysis. Taxes are not a key lever for improved business performance. Most dental practices are pass through entities, whereby the partners or owners pay all the taxes, not the business. Tracking and analyzing this financial data requires some work, time and effort. This is the work a business owner must commit to in order to achieve a successful and growing practice. If you are not interested, or do not have the time or knowledge to monitor these critical financial metrics, then by all means please enlist the help of a consultant or accountant who can and will. Remember, what Warren Buffett said: “The more you learn, the more you earn!” Please do not just ignore these reports, because poor financial and cash management will always become apparent at some point in time. We would call this a BLINDSPOT. The Fact that Financial Reports are not understood by many doesn’t make it any less of a problem for them or their practice. I will share how I review my financial reports next…. Be reassured that after just a few months experience this process can proceed rather quickly. Any large changes noticed may require a deeper dive by me or with the help of our accountant. First, I Check the date on the reports. They are typically a month or two behind due to the time it takes the accountant and book keeper to reconcile our statements. Next, I will check our bank account balance, I know this is current. I then start with the Statement of Cash Flows. What is my Operating Cash flow? Investing Cash flow? and Financing Cash Flow? How does this month and YTD Compare? Does the Ending Cash approximate my Bank Balance? Next I look at the Income Statement I examine Total Income percentages and compare the current month to last year, and the current YTD with the last YTD. I then look at each line item focusing on supply costs, employee wages, and other operating expenses. I note any significant percent changes, up or down, and then try to explain them. If I can’t I will call my accountant for a deeper dive. I expect some fluctuations with time, which are normal and could be due to a large order or a large infrequent expense. I then look at Gross Margin and Operating Margin comparing the current month to last year, and current YTD with last YTD. Finally I hit the Balance Sheet and again compare the current YTD with the last YTD. You can begin to see a pattern here; tracking and comparing current financials with last years financials. With this technique you begin to establish your own internal standards. This is an excellent way to monitor your practice financials and make any necessary adjustments to improve your financial performance. I am especially interested in the Equity Section of the Balance Sheet, as this is where all of our YTD profit accumulates! My partner and I take a modest salary draw monthly, and then as Equity Accumulates we will distribute some of the Profits as a bonus to ourselves throughout the year. I like to keep at least 2 months of payroll in the bank as cash. I sleep much better at night knowing our cash reserves are good. and Finally, we are done for now! Until next month! So that wraps things up for this Podcast.  Hopefully you have a better understanding of some basic Financial Statement Analysis and Metrics. You don’t have to know how to build a car in order to drive it, but you do need to know how to operate it, read the dashboard, adjust the knobs and dials, watch for the indicator lights, and keep the car on the road and out of the ditch. The same is true for the Financial Reports of your practice, one of your most valuable, cash generating and wealth creating assets. Don’t ignore what’s it’s telling you! Your practice talks to you in numbers, those numbers are on your financial reports. We hope that this information has created a few “Ah Ha” moments, or stimulated some additional questions you can direct to your advisers or accountants.  Hopefully, you feel less intimidated with Financial Reports now so that you can spend time familiarizing yourself with this information. You can always replay our Podcasts for review. Check our show notes for some excellent references. We welcome your inquiry here too at OmniStar Financial.  We are experts in Dental Practice Financial Analysis and Insight. Our contact information can be found at our website OmniStarfinancial.com  .  You will also find a link to sign up for our newsletter.  Please share this podcast if you found it helpful, and leave a review on iTunes too.  We welcome your feed back and suggestions for future podcast sessions.  You can always find me, your host, david darab, at my twitter handle, @ddarab. Thank you so very much for tuning in and listening.  We are very grateful for your time and attention and so very pleased to have you in our audience. David Darab, DDS, MS, MBA REFERENCES: Financial Intelligence by Karen Berman and Joe Knight Stark Naked Numbers by Jason Andrew