Common Cooperative Financial Statements (CoCoFiSt)
and Its Byproducts
CoCoFiSt is a program for improving performance that compiles, compares and analyzes financial and operating data from co-ops around the country. The purpose of CoCoFiSt is to enable cooperatives to improve operations as fast as possible and faster than the competition. These CoCoProducts are tools to go beyond the database and improve the stores!
CoCoHiFi
What: CoCoFiSt is a database of financial and operating data from participating natural food cooperatives designed to use the data to achieve targeted improvements. Each co-op’s quarterly data is entered into a Historical File (CoCoHiFi) specifically for that co-op. This data is kept on a spreadsheet and updated each quarter. A co-op can examine their CoCoHiFi tables to see how they are doing over time. HiFi’s are files containing up to 12 quarters of historical data your co-op has submitted to CoCoFiSt. There are a number of sections containing data: sales, sales growth, sales percent, actual margins, labor as a percent of sales, margin minus labor, sales/labor hour, sales/linear ft., inventory/linear ft., inventory turns, lost margins and turns times earns. Below these on the spreadsheet is the rolling quarter summary. These numbers summarize the current quarter and the three prior quarters in each column to give you an annual summary of the most recent 4 quarters.
How: Each quarter, the CoCoHiFi file is automatically sent to the store manager and/or to the person who submitted their co-op’s data. Each store receives its’ own CoCoHiFi only. The file is set up to highlight certain phenomena and help you focus in on areas that may need attention, continuation or emulation. Trends—data that are consistently moving in one direction for four or more adjacent quarters—are highlighted in yellow. Data that are statistically “out of control” are called variations and are highlighted in gray. These are rows that have a wide variance in performance. Areas where something has changed dramatically are called deviations and are highlighted in aqua. These are numbers (cells) that are significantly higher or lower than your co-op’s historical average. For more information, or to sign up, contact: Kate Sumberg 919-968-8799 KateSumberg@cdsconsulting.coop
Why: These files highlight areas to be looked into, but it is up to the store personnel to decide if there is an issue to be addressed and how to address it.
CoCoWorks!
What: 1 or 2 day sessions for department managers from several co-ops.
How: CoCoFiSt data and tools, along with peer-based analysis, are used to improve each co-op’s operations.
Why: CoCoWorks! sessions have often achieved at least $5,000 per year improvement for each co-op, and in some cases even more dramatic results.
CoCoConcentrate
What: CoCoWorks! session for one co-op which involves the general and financial manager and each department manager.
How: Includes examination of margin, category management, labor, within the co-op as well as comparisons with data from other cooperatives.
Why: Using the CoCoGap tool, each department will emerge from these intense sessions with specific goals for improvement as well as a stronger commitment to teamwork among management and staff. CDS guarantees that this session will identify savings and improvements that are at least several times the cost.
CoCoGAP
What: CoCoGAP illustrates how much more profit a co-op would realize if it performed at benchmarked levels (the Gap).
How: The general and department manager can compare departmental data on key variables such as margin, labor productivity, growth rate, and turns to the best performing CoCoFiSt co-ops. CoCoGap allows you to change key variables and see the potential impact on your bottom line.
Why: CoCoGAP provides an interactive mechanism to construct a mini business plan for each department, using comparative data from the CoCoFiSt database.
CoCoBud (Common Cooperative Budget)
What: From the co-op’s CoCoHiFi reports (historical and operating numbers), CoCoBud projects sales, margins, and payroll by department as well as income statements, balance sheets, cash flows, and ratios for the next 4 quarters and the following 2 years.
How: The general manager can modify the trends, based on the co-op’s business plans and assumptions.
Why: CoCoBud is updated for each participating co-op each quarter, so that the co-op maintains a “rolling” 4-quarter/3-year budget.
For more information contact:
Walden Swanson, 919-968-8799, WaldenSwanson@cdsconsulting.coop
Mel Braverman, 608-243-3255, MelBraverman@cdsconsulting.coop
Kate Sumberg, 919-968-8799, KateSumberg@cdsconsulting.coop
