Take Note: June 12 Deadline for ABACUS-18 Financial Benchmarking Survey

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ABACUS-18 logoThe submission period for ABACUS-18, the American Booksellers Association’s annual financial benchmarking survey, is underway. The deadline for submitting responses is Wednesday, June 12.

ABA member bookstores can access the ABACUS submission page by going to www.ABACUSbenchmarking.com

ABACUS is a free, exclusive member benefit for participating bookstores. The customized reports and online tools that reporting stores receive in return for filling out the survey provide a full picture of a bookstore’s financial performance, presented with benchmarking information across a number of categories, including sales volume, profitability, and market size. In addition to the detailed overall and store-specific reports, ABACUS’ online tools allow participating stores to generate additional dynamic reports.

“Completing the ABACUS reporting is one of those rare tasks that pays off over and over again,” said Melissa DeMotte of the Well-Read Moose in Coeur d’Alene, Idaho. “The reporting is robust and flexible. I find myself looking at different aspects of the business throughout the year, and I use ABACUS to see how we compare to our peers and to help my leadership team understand what we need to improve upon.”

By becoming part of the ABACUS community of participating bookstores, booksellers will receive:

  • a full ABACUS benchmarking report (including comparative financial ratios, operations data, and company profile information),
  • a customized bookstore performance report, and
  • a range of online reporting tools that provide a wide variety of specific analyses, allowing stores to evaluate performance versus similar companies and track their company’s performance over time against the industry results, among other criteria.

This year, ABA will again be working to compile and create the ABACUS report with Industry Insights, of Dublin, Ohio, a company that has worked with associations for more than 35 years in preparing studies of business demographics, operations information, and financial ratios. In compiling the data and preparing individual reports, no one from ABA ever sees any store’s individual data, which is only available to select staff at Industry Insights and kept strictly confidential.

Instructions on accessing the survey were sent to ABA member bookstores via a May 6 e-mail from Michael Becher of Industry Insights, with the subject line “ABACUS-18 Benchmarking Survey.” Booksellers are encouraged to check with their colleagues or in their spam folder if they did not receive the e-mail. The ABACUS submission page can be reached at www.ABACUSbenchmarking.com.

Booksellers with any questions about ABACUS are encouraged to contact ABA’s Dan Cullen or Industry Insights’ Michael Becher.