MATERIALS are physical goods (and their cost) used in the manufacture of a product, often separated into DIRECT MATERIAL (that which goes directly into the product such as cream into ice cream, or steel into cars) and INDIRECT MATERIAL (that which is used in maintaining the manufacturing environment such as cleaning fluids or oil for lubrication of manufacturing equipment). Indirect materials are usually part of the overhead component of cost. The term material, when used without the direct or indirect qualifier, usually refers to direct materials.

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TIMES INTEREST EARNED (TIE) measures the extent to which operating income can decline before the firm is unable to meet its annual interest costs. The TIE ratio is used by bankers to assess a firm's ability to pay their liabilities. TIE determines how many times during the year the company has earned the annual interest costs associated with servicing its debt. Normally, a banker will be looking for a TIE ratio to be 2.0 or greater, showing that a business is earning the interest charges two or more times each year. A value of 1.0 or less suggests that the firm is not earning sufficient amounts to cover interest charges.  Formula: Earnings Before Interest & Taxes [EBIT] / Interest Charges

COMMON SIZED PERCENTAGES are financial statements in which each item is expressed as a percentage of a major financial statement component. In the Income Statement, each "Common Size %" is the field amount expressed as a percent of "Net Revenues." In the Balance Sheet, each "Common Size %" is the amount in the category as a percent of Total Assets. Common sized financial statements can be used to: a. identify key structural changes in a company's financial data over a period of time; b. more easily compare the financial data of firms that vary significantly in size; and, c. compare a company's financial data to industry norms.

 

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