Credit Manager Magazine 9/2021

39 CREDIT MANAGER MAGAZINE WRZESIEŃ / SEPTEMBER 2021 Fig. 2 Financial standing with scored ratios (the scores are given in light gray color below the ratio values) Fig. 3 Current and quick ratios compared with industry benchmarks for the Information and Communication industry (marked in yellow) their scores, ranging by default from 0 to 3. These scores indicate how good is the par- ticular ratio value with respect to the refence values known e.g., from the literature. For in- stance, the quick ratio value below 0.5 is con- sidered as an indicator of financial liquidity loss, hence it is given 0 points, whereas the value above 1.2 is considered good and is thus given 3 points. Looking at the total score, the credit manager can quickly assess the over- all financial situation of the given company and decide upon their creditworthiness (cf. Fig. 2). Finally, the third flavor of the stand- ing facilitates ratio values with the industry benchmarks (cf. Fig. 3), computed for the industry in which the analyzed company op- erates. The industry is determined based on the assignment of company’s key activities to an appropriate section of the Polish Clas- sification of Activities (PKD 2007) [4]. The industry benchmarks are obtained from the wskaznikibranzowe.pl service (https://wska- znikibranzowe.pl) , in which they are com- puted based on the quarterly and yearly data published by the Central Statistical Office of Poland within the scope of the Local Data Bank (https://bdl.stat.gov.pl) and the Analyt- ical Platform of the Analyses and Decisions Support System (http://swaid.stat.gov.pl/EN/ SitePages/StronaGlownaDBW.aspx). To further facilitate quick assessment of com- pany’s creditworthiness the system allows for the creation of monitored ratios view. This view includes ratios selected (and pos- sibly also defined) by the user of the system. Hence, it helps to personalize the scope of key performance indicators that play the most important role for the given manager. Although the system does not allow to assign scores to the selected ratios, it still provides the industry benchmarks. Therefore, it is possible not only to analyze the ratios’ values, but also to view them with reference to the industry standards. This way, one gains ad- ditional insights into the performance of the given company and is able to decide whether the company is creditworthy. In-depth analysis If the means for quick creditworthiness anal- ysis described before are insufficient, the sys- tem offers a wide variety of ratios and models to facilitate a more in-depth analysis. Firstly, it provides five groups of analytical ratios in- cluding: liquidity ratios, debt management ratios, efficiency (activity) ratios, profitability ratios and general performance ratios. With- in the scope of each group one finds basic and additional ratios (which can be optional- ly turned on or off), as well as own ratios de- fined in the system by the users. Own ratios make it possible to complement the already broad scope of ratios with the ones that are particularly interesting for a given user. The EDUCATION