Custom Graphing: Ranking Report (ex. Productivity & Efficiency)

The Standing Report is easy to explain and one of the most helpful and powerful tables you can build in Peer 2. Understanding its power is key to gaining Jedi Knight status. But this post comes with a warning: you must use this Force for Good. Do not lured to the Dark Side. There is great temptation to keep its power secret from your colleagues so that you look all-knowing and powerful, while they slave away using excel spreadsheets for hours to produce similar information.

This report answers the question "What is your standing compared to your peers?."

So what does it show? The Standing Report compares your primary CUs performance in however many areas you want against all other CUs in the comparison sets. It shows your actual performance, rank out of the total # of CUs, the other CUs' average performance and what percentile your performance falls into.

Let's look at Productivity & Efficiency to tie together what you learned earlier in the week with the Formula Wizard post and today's lesson.

Begin by selecting the Standing Report. Click on the binocular image on the first line and navigate to Ratio & Scoring --> Productivity & Efficiency.
Double-click on each formula you want to include on the report (you'll see each one you select pop into the window at the bottom.
If you want to do more than 15 rows, you'll have to go back to the Account Selection screen and click "insert" for each new line you want to add (annoying).
When done, give your table a title and select either Preview or Save. Voila! (my new favorite word).
If you want to see how another CU in the comparison set performs, just use the drop down menu on the graph (which regrettably is sorting in descending asset order rather than alphabetically...submitted to fix desk).

The "Formula Wizard"

Most long-time Peer users are familiar with the phrase "Formula Wizard" to describe the tool that allows you to find accounts when building custom graphs or peer groups. In Peer 1, the icon used to a be a little magic wand (I'll bet many of you never even realized that...it took me 2 years to figure it out).The icon for Peer 2's Formula Wizard (FW) is a set of binoculars so now we need a new name for it. Ideas?

Admission: the new FW isn't as comprehensive in some ways as Peer 1 (yes, we've heard from those of you who liked the Simple mode in Peer 1) but it's better in other ways. Bear with the software team as they balance the need to make something very complicated user friendly and comprehensive at the same time.

So, what is the Formula Wizard (FW)? The FW is designed to give Peer users quick access to the most commonly used account codes on the 5300, as well as dozens (hundreds?) of formulas and shortcuts to make your analysis easier. Ok, so how does it work? When you click on the binoculars, you are presented with this screen:

As you can see, it's organized like the 5300 itself. I'll discuss the Loan section in some detail (already highlighted in the above image), and you can extrapolate from there for the Other Assets, Liabilities and Income/Expense sections. At the bottom of this post, I'll cover Ratios & Scoring, Contacts & My Formula(s) (Typo....programmers, please fix!).

As you can see above, when you highlight the main Loan folder, there is a list general loan formulas: loan growth, average loan balance, etc. To drill down into specific areas of the Loan portfolio, highlight the sub-sections. Here is an example from the Real Estate section. (Note, if you're familiar with Schedule A, you know that there are multiple "704" codes...704a, 704b, etc. we've combined them into a704 so you don't have to type them all in. )
If you got to the FW from the custom graphing page, just double click on any account to add it to the Account Selection screen. You'll see it added to the list on the bottom right (where a703 is listed).

Ratios & Scoring: This section contains our world-famous ROM ranking, as well as NCUA's Financial Performance Ratios (FPR), shortcuts for the PCA calculations and some of our favorite productivity & efficiency ratios.

Contacts, Services & Partners: This section contains 2 types of proprietary, non-5300 data that Callahan & Associates collects, as well as information from the CUSO and IT schedules of the 5300. The proprietary data includes 9 personnel titles (ranging from CEO to CLO to CMO) and a dozen supplier relationships (what company the credit union uses for the data processing or home banking platforms for example...new field including mobile banking and RDC will be coming in the next data cycle).

My Formulas: Here is where you can create your own shortcuts. For example, there are 10 accounts that make-up "Equity" and no shortcut (yes, I've added it to the request list). In the meantime, you can add it to your own shortcuts under My Formulas. Now, going forward, all you ever have to type is "Equity" rather than a940+a931+a668+a658+a658a+
a996+a945+a945a+a945b+a602 (Whew!).
One cautionary note: if you create your own formulas or custom graphs, be sure to check all formulas each time NCUA releases new accounts. In the above Equity example, I was helping a client convert their Peer 1 custom displays and we found out they had never updated their formula for equity and were missing accounts added in the last year.

Our analysts review all the accounts before we release each quarter to make sure the same shortcuts reflect any changes in the call report. So, if you use our built-in formulas, we take care of that for you. For example, "Mutual Funds & Common Trusts" were grouped together under a743c until 1Q09. Now they are, respectively, a743d and a743e.

Share your custom peer groups

Peer 2.0 comes with 10 standard (ie. asset-based) Peer Groups already built-in. Usually though, credit unions build a custom peer group against which to benchmark their performance (isn't this the reason you bought Peer after all?). Rather than make every analyst on your team go through the effort of re-creating the Peer Group, simply share the one you already built! Here's how.

(Assumption: You've already created the Peer Group). Go to the Peer Groups menu and Select Share.

Here you will see a list of Peer Groups available in your desktop version of Peer. Select the one you wish to share with others (Peer will show you the credit unions in the group in the window below).

Now, you have a couple of options. If you want other analysts to import the Peer Group into their version of Peer, select either Export .p2p (this exports the .P2P to a location of your choice) or Email (which attaches the .P2P file to an email message in your default email program). Done!

Want to import a Peer Group someone else created? On the Peer groups menu, select Manage OR from the File Menu select Import --> Peer Groups. Either way, you'll get a new window with one option being Import. Click on it.

Find the .P2P file you received from someone else (I assume here you already saved it somewhere). Click Open and you will be prompted to name and save the Peer Group.

Done!

How to share custom graphs with others (and import someone else's)

A .crc file is a way for Peer users to share custom displays (graphs, charts, tables) they created in their desktop version of Peer with other users. This way, users save time and energy by eliminating the needless duplication of effort. Here's how to create and share a CRC file.

First, I'm going to start with the assumption that you already have created custom graphs that you want to share. (Not sure? Go to My Displays in the left sidebar and check).

Now, to export the graphs is easy. Simply go to the File menu (top left as usual) --> Export --> Custom Displays. Select the folder of graphs you wish to export from the list on your screen. You have 2 options: Export, which will save the file to your desktop or anywhere you designate (a shared drive for example); or Email, which will open your default email browser with the .crc file as an attachment. Done!

Want to import graphs from someone else? I assume they sent you a .crc or you downloaded one from www.p2psoftware.com. Save the .crc somewhere you can find it (your desktop, for example). Now, simply go to File --> Import --> Custom Displays. Click Browse to find the file you just saved. Name it and click on Import. Done! These graphs will be saved under My Displays in the left navigation.