Profitability Index Rule

  

Categories: Regulations, Metrics

See: Profitability Index.

We'll get to the actual rule in a second. But be warned: it's a rule of thumb that will seem pretty obvious. Like, in the same category as "don’t stick needles in your eye" or "don’t take a nap on a busy highway."

The profitability index rule states that you shouldn't put money into a project with a profitability index figure of less than 1.0. The rule works because a reading of less than 1.0 on the profitability index means a project isn't profitable.

To put it another way, if you get a reading below 1.0 on the profitability index, it means that, according to all your current information, investing in that venture will lose money. So, uh...don't put your money there. Find something else...something with a profitability index reading of more than 1.0. In other words, invest your cash in something that will make money. Ever see David Letterman's Stupid Pet Tricks segments? Well, this is that...for accountants and investors.

And, oh yeah, don't nap on a busy highway or stick a needle in your eye. Sheesh, do we have to tell you everything?

Related or Semi-related Video

Cost Accounting: What is CVP and Cost-Vo...2 Views

00:00

And finance Allah shmoop What is CVP and or cost

00:06

volume Profit analysis All right For starters CVP is not

00:13

that thing that runs a computer That cpu Yeah And

00:16

it's not a drugstore that c v s And it's

00:19

not a fancy name for resumes That's uh just CV

00:23

CVP cost volume profit analysis Well CVP is all about

00:28

profits rather than optimizing profits Yes subtle thing There you

00:32

are running a company You make foam padding for people

00:34

who experienced a psychotic breaks to put on their bedroom

00:38

walls You're trying to figure out what pricing delivers the

00:41

best operating or net income returns All right what time

00:44

is it Yes it's time for CVP analysis Yet you

00:48

knew going well this thing helps you find the answer

00:51

in a kind of matthew way to optimizing your problems

00:54

You know So you're not just throwing darts or shaking

00:56

a magic eight ball or something although we think that's

00:58

pretty cool OK well when you run a CVP you

01:01

make some assumptions You use a whole lot of scenarios

01:04

that don't necessarily reflect real life but they help the

01:07

math along For instance you assume all of your inventory

01:10

gets sold like you're not monkeying around with inventory ballooning

01:14

on your shelves and hiding profits Nor are you depleting

01:17

it suddenly to generate suddenly a lot of cash and

01:20

well taxes Maybe you're also assuming that pricing is flat

01:24

You're neither raising nor lowering pricing and your margins then

01:27

should pretty much stay about the same You know like

01:30

if you're keeping prices flat the price per square yard

01:32

stay steady for the head butter two thousand And that

01:35

thing which is your primary product right You're also assuming

01:39

that your cost of producing the foam is flat and

01:42

squishy Well the variable costs remain constant flat you know

01:45

like the padding And you're assuming that there are no

01:47

meaningful changes to your phone fixed costs like rent or

01:50

insurance or the machine that squeezes out the patting twenty

01:53

four by seven The on ly change here the on

01:56

ly input in the equation you're going to monkey with

01:59

is act activity I e volumes sold So the basic

02:02

question you're asking How does prophet change when we change

02:06

the amount of stuff we make What happens if we

02:10

make Maur What happens if we make less That's what

02:12

we're asking Well the star of the show and CVP

02:14

analysis is country abuse Shin margin So you're producing million

02:19

yards of patting CVP is all about figuring out what

02:21

happens when you produce that million and one thir million

02:25

and first yard of padding When you produce your first

02:28

yard will that yard costs a fortune right from a

02:31

mass standpoint you bought all that equipment hired all those

02:33

workers built a whole factory just to make one yard

02:36

of patting very expensive But as you make more well

02:38

the cost gets spread out over more product All the

02:41

fixed costs like rent insurance and so on get applied

02:44

to a larger number of units There Amor ties across

02:47

a bigger base right the per unit cost then drops

02:51

well Once you're running the factory and churning out patting

02:53

it becomes all about contribution margin like that's the rule

02:57

that runs your company Optimize it So if that last

03:00

pad sells for ten bucks a yard and it cost

03:02

you six bucks a yard to make well then your

03:04

contribution per yard is four bucks and your contribution margin

03:09

is forty percent Yeah that works for over ten It's

03:12

basically revenue or rather sales than subtracting all the variable

03:16

costs in making that yard That's on a per unit

03:18

basis If the whole company's sold twenty million dollarsworth of

03:21

lunatic padding in a given year and it had total

03:24

variable cost If I'LL say fourteen million well then companywide

03:27

contribution margin delivery would be about six million bucks right

03:31

Twenty minutes fourteen contribution think donation to profits from sales

03:35

or something like that So the next big thing think

03:37

about is the break even point At what volume or

03:41

level of sales does the head butter two thousand cover

03:44

It's fixed Recurring costs where profits are zero and the

03:47

company is joss squeaking by like How much should it

03:51

produce Well let's say your factory has six million dollars

03:53

in fixed costs That amount covers things like rent on

03:56

the factory in the cost of the machines and so

03:58

on When you make that first yard of patting it

04:00

cost six million dollars sell it for ten bucks and

04:02

you've lost five million nine hundred ninety nine thousand nine

04:05

hundred ninety dollars Good for you Okay so we need

04:08

to figure out just how many yards you have to

04:10

make until that bottom line reaches zero Well At what

04:13

point Teo sales cover costs wealth the math equation sales

04:16

At this point this break even point equals total variable

04:20

cost plus total fixed costs and fixed costs are the

04:24

same as the contribution totals So the Head Butter two

04:27

thousand has fourteen million dollars invariable costs The cost of

04:30

the raw materials and labor IT center all included in

04:32

there and there are six million dollars in fix recurring

04:35

cost So then it's sales of twenty million box It's

04:37

just breaking even That sales volume equates to two million

04:41

yards worth of padding Sold it ten bucks each with

04:44

two million yards you're covering for the cost of the

04:46

patting itself and the labor and the electricity and the

04:48

raw materials and the facility caused and sales and marketing

04:51

and all of it together is fourteen million dollars invariable

04:55

costs Well you're also covered for the six million bucks

04:58

worth of fixed recurring cost like rent insurance and loading

05:01

dock snacks and so on And note that some cost

05:04

like manufacturing or sales can be both fixed and variable

05:07

right You're storing tons of patting You need rent more

05:10

storage space so your rent goes up So when you

05:12

put together a mini income statement like this you label

05:15

it contribution margin income statement because it's not a gap

05:19

compliance set of numbers There's no set of laws that

05:22

makes you Adam up in a certain way right They're

05:24

just there to help managers you know manage okay back

05:27

to break even The fancy formula runs like this Break

05:30

even Sales is or equals total fixed costs over contribution

05:34

margin ratio Well in your case you have six million

05:37

dollars in fixed costs and a contribution margin of seven

05:40

twenty It's or thirty five percent So you divide the

05:43

six million by the point three five to get twenty

05:45

mill in sales as break even see it's like magic

05:47

Well given the cost structure to break even I'ii stop

05:49

losing money on the whole deal You need to reach

05:51

twenty million in sales After that you've taken care of

05:54

all the fixed costs the rent the equipment and so

05:57

on more than twenty million in sales and you start

05:59

to book profits Yeah which should keep your shareholders from

06:02

hitting their heads against the wall though if they did 00:06:05.295 --> [endTime] Well at least you'd have some new customers

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