It's been three years since we published an index of Benchmarks. This updated version is organized by topic and includes dates for any Benchmark column that discusses the topic.
| Volume & Margins |
| Minimum Annual Volume | $250,000 | (2/00, 9/02) |
| Job Size & Number | | (2/03, 3/03) |
| Gross Margin/Produced Gross Profit | 40% / 32.7% | (11/98, 1/02) |
| Net Profit Margins | 10% | (6/00, 11/02) |
| Slippage | 2% to 5% | (3/02, 7/03) |
| Annual Overhead | 16% | (1/01, 10/02) |
| Current Ratio | 1.3-to-1 | (11/99) |
| Growth | 10% a year | (7/98) |
| Risk Management |
| Cash Reserves | 20% of revenue | (4/01) |
| Debt-to-Equity Ratio | 3-to-1 | (9/00) |
| Minimum Liability Insurance |
| Incident | $1 million | |
| Aggregate | $2 million | (5/01) |
| Safety | 0 accidents | (4/99) |
| Marketing |
| Marketing Expenditures | 3% of revenue | (8/98, 11/03) |
| Contacts with Past Clients | 3 per year | (10/99) |
| Warranty Period | 2 years | (11/00) |
| Cost of Warranty Work | 1/2% of revenue | (7/01) |
| Response Time to Client Complaints | 24 hours | (1/99) |
| Personnel |
| Performance Evaluations | 1 per year | (5/00) |
| Employee Paid Vacation | 2 weeks | (12/00) |
| Matching Retirement Benefits | 25% | (5/99) |
| Employee Training | 2% of payroll | (12/98) |
| Carpenter's Wages | $18.50 per hour | (10/00) |
| Sales |
| Close Ratio (qualified leads) | 20% | (2/99) |
| Referral Work | 60% of sales | (8/01,10/03) |
| Customer Satisfaction | 95% | (1/00) |
| Design Fees & Documents | | (9/98, 9/04) |
| Annual Per-Person Sales (Specialty Firm) | $1 million | (9/99) |
| Change Orders | 10% of budget | (7/02) |
| Backlog | | (9/03) |
| Cost-Plus | | (6/04) |
| Owner Issues |
| Owner's Salary | 10% of revenue | (3/99, 12/02, 4/04) |
| Allocating Owner Hours | | (2/04) |
| Risk Quotient | | (1/03) |
| Business Development Time | 5 hours per week | (10/98) |
| Continuing Education | 40 hours per year | (6/99) |
| Annual Vacation | 2 weeks | (3/00) |
| Critical Metrics | | (12/03, 3/04) |
| Production |
| Volume Produced by Lead Carpenter | $300,000 per year | (7/99, 7/00) |
| Volume Handled by Production Manager | $1.25 million | (12/99) |
| Labor Cost | 23% of cost of construction | (2/01) |
| Field-to-Office Staff Ratio | 2.5:1 | (11/01) |
| Nonproductive Hours | 20% of payroll | (6/02) |