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Annual Statement Studies® FAQs

If you have additional questions about the content of the Annual Statement Studies®, please contact the Annual Statement Studies® Department by e-mail at studies@rmahq.org.

General

  1. Can I reproduce the data?
  2. Do I need to obtain a copyright or license agreement?
  3. Are data available on industries not listed as being in our database?
  4. Are non-U.S. companies included?
  5. Can RMA provide the names of the companies included in the database?
  6. Are regional data available?
  7. How does someone unfamiliar with financial statement analysis begin to interpret the data in the Annual Statement Studies®
  8. What are the fiscal closing dates of the data included in the current database?
  9. How many industries (NAICS codes) are in the 2008-09 edition of the Annual Statement Studies®: Financial Ratio Benchmarks and Annual Statement Studies®: Industry Default Probabilities?
  10. How can I get my industry represented in the Statement Studies database?
  11. Are the companies represented in the statement studies public or nonpublic?
  12. How many financial statements were used for this industry?
  13. How many financial statements were collected for the 2008-09 edition?
  14. Where does RMA get the data?
  15. What does the "M" mean at the bottom of the database presentation?
  16. What is the difference between industries found in the construction-general and construction-percentage of completion section?
  17. When will RMA's Annual Statement Studies begin using the 2008-2009 NAICS?

Balance Sheet

  1. Are further breakdowns of the data available from RMA?
  2. How do I interpret the bold figures at the bottom of the page?
  3. What is tangible net worth?

Income Statement

  1. Are further breakdowns of the data available from RMA?
  2. Does RMA have more detailed expense data besides that which appear in the database?
  3. How do I interpret the bold figures at the bottom of the page?
  4. What does EBIT mean?
  5. What is Cost of Goods Sold?
  6. Since there is no Cost of Goods Sold for Services, what value is the best alternative?

Ratios

  1. What do the bold figures (shown in brackets in software) to the left of the Sales/Receivables, Cost of Sales/Inventory, and Cost of Sales/Payables ratios mean?
  2. What do the three figures given for each ratio represent?
  3. What is included in the ratio % Officers', Directors', Owners' Comp/Sales? How many officers, etc., does it represent? Why is it arrayed from low to high?
  4. What is the meaning of the figure that sometimes appears to the left of the median and quartiles?
  5. How many ratios are included?
  6. What does the "NM" mean for the ratio values?
  7. What does the "UND" mean for the ratio values?

General

  1. Can I reproduce the data?
    No. Regardless of the number of copies purchased, RMA holds the copyright to the Annual Statement Studies® data. No reproduction is permitted without written permission from RMA. To obtain permission, please fax full details on the proposed usage of the database to the Statement Studies Department at 215-446-4101 or e-mail the details to studies@rmahq.org.

  2. Do I need to obtain a copyright or license agreement?
    • Copyright: You will need copyright permission to copy, quote, reproduce, replicate, disseminate, or distribute this product or any portion thereof. Please email studies@rmahq.org with the proposed usage, in order to obtain the copyright line to include in your work.
    • License agreement: If data is going to be used with or incorporated into other products that will in turn be used internally or sold to others—this typically refers to software-oriented or derived products—a license agreement will need to be executed.  Requests for the appropriate royalty agreement, including full details on the proposed usage, should be faxed to the Statement Studies Department at 215-446-4101 or e-mailed to studies@rmahq.org. A license is required for each edition of our publications.
    • License to incorporate data: If data will be used within reports, or used in consultative type engagements, e.g., business valuation reports, business plans, comparative performance reports, etc., a license agreement must be executed. To obtain a copy of the license agreement, please click here. The completed license agreement should be faxed to the Statement Studies Department at 215-446-4101.

  3. Are data available on industries not listed as being in our database?
    No, because we simply do not have the industry data or the sample size is too small. Generally, when there are fewer than 30 financial statements, the composite data are not shown because such a small sample is not considered representative and could be misleading.

  4. Are non-U.S. companies included?
    The vast majority of companies included in the database are U.S. based; however, some overseas subsidiaries' data may be included as a function of their financial reporting process.

  5. Can RMA provide the names of the companies included in the database?
    No. The statements which go into producing the composites are supplied by RMA member institutions. They represent the financials on their commercial customers and prospects. The names of the individual entities are not known to RMA; they are removed prior to delivering the data to RMA for confidentiality purposes.

  6. Are regional data available?
    Yes, but only in eStatement StudiesSM.

  7. How does someone unfamiliar with financial statement analysis begin to interpret the data in the Annual Statement Studies®?
    A good beginning is to thoroughly read the Introduction and Definition of Ratios section. Remaining questions should be directed to the Statement Studies Department at studies@rmahq.org.

  8. What are the fiscal closing dates of the data included in the current database?
    April 1, 2007, through March 31, 2008. We also provide a breakdown of the number of statements falling within two ranges of those parameters. For example, 16 (4/1-9/30/07) means that 16 statements with fiscal dates between April 1 and September 30, 2007, make up part of the sample. The number of statements with fiscal dates falling between October 1, 2007, and March 31, 2008, are shown in the same manner.
  9. How many industries (NAICS codes) are in the 2008-09 edition of the Annual Statement Studies®: Financial Ratio Benchmarks and Annual Statement Studies®: Industry Default Probabilities?
    755 industries appear in the 2008-09 Financial Ratio Benchmarks, and 693 are represented in the Industry Default Probabilities. If you do not know the precise NAICS code for your industry, contact the Census Bureau directly at 1-888-75NAICS or via email at naics@census.gov. You can also visit their Web site at the following Web address: http://www.census.gov/epcd/www/naics.html.

  10. How can I get my industry represented in the Statement Studies database?
    All data submissions come from our member institutions. Encourage your respective lending institution to forward the appropriate data to RMA during our annual submissions drive. If interested, please send an e-mail to studies@rmahq.org and we will include your name in our submission campaign correspondence.

  11. Are the companies represented in the statement studies public or nonpublic?
    Both, but the vast majority are nonpublic comp