Efficiency Ratio: Definition, Formula, and Example (2024)

What is an Efficiency Ratio?

The efficiency ratio is typically used to analyze how well a company uses its assets and liabilities internally. An efficiency ratio can calculate the turnover of receivables, the repayment of liabilities, the quantity and usage of equity, and the general use of inventory and machinery. This ratio can also be used to track and analyze the performance of commercial and investment banks.

What Does an Efficiency Ratio Tell You?

Efficiency ratios,alsoknown as activity ratios,are used by analysts tomeasure the performance of a company's short-term or current performance. All these ratios use numbers in a company's current assets or current liabilities, quantifying the operations of the business.

An efficiency ratio measures a company's ability to use its assets to generate income. For example, an efficiency ratio often looks at various aspects of the company, such as the time it takes to collect cash from customers or the amount of time it takes to convert inventory to cash. This makes efficiency ratios important, because an improvement in the efficiency ratios usually translates to improved profitability.

These ratios can be compared with peers in the same industry and can identify businesses that are better managed relative to the others. Some common efficiency ratios are accounts receivable turnover, fixed asset turnover, sales to inventory, sales to net working capital, accounts payable to sales and stock turnover ratio.

Efficiency Ratios for Banks

In the banking industry, an efficiency ratio has a specific meaning. For banks, the efficiency ratio is non-interest expenses/revenue. This shows how well the bank's managers control their overhead (or "back office") expenses. Like the efficiency ratios above, this allows analysts to assess the performance of commercial and investment banks.

The EfficiencyRatio for Banks Is:

EfficiencyRatio=ExpensesRevenuenotincludinginterest\begin{aligned} &\text{Efficiency Ratio} = \frac{\text{Expenses}^{\dagger}}{\text{Revenue}} \\ &\dagger \text{not including interest}\\ \end{aligned}EfficiencyRatio=RevenueExpensesnotincludinginterest

Since a bank's operating expenses are in the numerator and its revenue is in the denominator, a lower efficiency ratio means that a bank is operating better.

An efficiency ratio of 50% or under is considered optimal. If the efficiency ratio increases, it means a bank's expenses are increasing or its revenues are decreasing.

For example, Bank X reportedquarterly earnings and it had anefficiency ratio of 57.1%, which was lower than the 63.2% ratio it reported for the same quarter last year. This means the company's operations became more efficient, increasingits assets by $80 million for the quarter.

Efficiency Ratio: Definition, Formula, and Example (2024)

FAQs

Efficiency Ratio: Definition, Formula, and Example? ›

The Efficiency ratio is calculated by dividing current liabilities & current assets by total assets. Efficiency ratios measure the efficiency of a firm's operation, which can be used to analyze how well a company uses its assets to generate revenue.

What is an example of an efficient ratio? ›

If the efficiency ratio increases, it means a bank's expenses are increasing or its revenues are decreasing. For example, Bank X reported quarterly earnings and it had an efficiency ratio of 57.1%, which was lower than the 63.2% ratio it reported for the same quarter last year.

What describes the efficiency ratios? ›

Efficiency ratios measure a company's ability to use its assets and manage its liabilities effectively in the current period or in the short-term. Although there are several efficiency ratios, they are similar in that they measure the time it takes to generate cash or income from a client or by liquidating inventory.

What is the formula for efficiency ratio in production? ›

The efficiency ratio measures whether the production output for a period in a production cost centre took more or less direct labour time than expected. It is calculated as: (Standard direct labour hours of actual production ÷ actual direct labour hours worked) × 100%.

How do you calculate efficiency in finance? ›

Efficiency Calculations in Corporate Finance are quantitative methods used to measure a company's operational efficiency. These computations consider different financial indicators and ratios, providing insight into a company's overall productivity and profitability.

What is efficiency ratio and its formula? ›

The Efficiency ratio is calculated by dividing current liabilities & current assets by total assets. Efficiency ratios measure the efficiency of a firm's operation, which can be used to analyze how well a company uses its assets to generate revenue.

What is a good example of efficiency? ›

In general, we say something is efficient when it maximises outputs with given inputs. In other words, it's the ability to do something well and without waste. Often we try to measure efficiency levels, such as how energy efficient our light bulbs are or how efficient a business is at producing a product.

What is the best efficiency ratio? ›

They look at the company's industry and evaluate how the company's competitors are doing. Financial industry analysts commonly use the efficiency ratio to judge a bank's performance. Experts consider an efficiency ratio of 50% or less to be extremely good. The average efficiency ratio for banks is closer to 60%.

What is the most common efficiency ratio measuring inventory? ›

Among the most popular efficiency ratios are the following:
  1. Inventory Turnover Ratio. The inventory turnover ratio is expressed as the number of times an enterprise sells out of its stock of goods within a given period of time. ...
  2. Accounts Receivable Turnover Ratio. Where: ...
  3. Accounts Payable Turnover Ratio. ...
  4. Asset Turnover Ratio.

What is the efficiency ratio strategy? ›

Kaufman, the Efficiency Ratio can be used to determine the strength of a trend. The efficiency ratio is calculated by dividing the net change in price movement (rate of change) over the specified period by the sum of the absolute net changes (rate of change) over the same period.

What is an efficiency formula? ›

Efficiency = Output ÷ Input. Output (or work output) is the total amount of useful work completed without accounting for any waste and spoilage. If you want to express efficiency as a percentage, simply by multiplying the ratio by 100.

How to improve efficiency ratio? ›

You can improve your efficiency ratio in one of two ways: becoming more productive or becoming more efficient. If you focus on productivity, then you'd take steps to increase the amount of revenue that comes in for the same amount of labor.

What is the symbol for efficiency? ›

Efficiency can be determined quantitatively by the ratio of useful output to total input. The ratio of energy transferred to a useful form compared to the total energy supplied initially is called the efficiency of the device. Efficiency is denoted by η.

Why is the efficiency ratio important? ›

The efficiency ratio is a metric used in financial analysis to evaluate how effectively a company manages its operational expenses in relation to its revenue. The efficiency ratio provides important insights into the firm's profitability and ability to convert revenues into profits over the long run.

What are the three efficiency ratios? ›

Asset turnover ratio – measures how effectively a company uses its assets to generate revenue. Inventory turnover ratio – measures the speed at which a company sells and replaces its inventory. Receivables turnover ratio – measures how quickly a company collects payments from its customers.

What is the formula for production efficiency? ›

The production efficiency formula is:Production efficiency = (actual output rate / standard output rate) x 100The formula means that production efficiency equals the actual output rate divided by the standard output rate times 100%.

What is an example of a bank's efficiency ratio? ›

On the other hand, Bank B has an efficiency ratio of 62%, indicating that Bank A manages its expenses more efficiently than Bank B. In other words, for every rupee of revenue generated, Bank A spends 55 paise on operating expenses, while Bank B spends 62 paise.

What is an example of a ratio? ›

For example, if there is 1 boy and 3 girls you could write the ratio as:
  • 1 : 3 (for every one boy there are 3 girls)
  • 1 / 4 are boys and 3 / 4 are girls.
  • 0.25 are boys (by dividing 1 by 4)
  • 25% are boys (0.25 as a percentage)

What is an example of energy efficiency ratio? ›

For example, a 12,000-BTU air conditioner that uses 1,200 watts has an EER rating of 10 (12,000/1,200 = 10). This measurement is based on operating the air conditioner with an outside temperature of 95 degrees Fahrenheit. The EER rating indicates how energy efficient an HVAC unit is.

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