Sales Per Employee (Historical) Formula in Excel
Understanding Sales Per Employee (Historical)
The Sales Per Employee (Historical) formula in Excel helps you measure how expensive it is to run a company by evaluating its annual sales in relation to its headcount. This ratio illustrates how efficiently a company generates revenue per employee. Investors and analysts often use it to compare companies within the same sector or industry.
- Purpose: Gain insights into operational efficiency.
- Key Benefits:
- Helps identify efficiency trends.
- Simplifies benchmarking across companies.
- When to Use:
- Comparing multiple companies in the same industry.
- Evaluating how sales growth aligns with workforce changes.
Syntax and Parameters
=hf_Sales_per_Employee(Symbol, year, [quarter], [TTM])
Parameter | Description | Required | Example |
---|---|---|---|
Symbol |
The ticker symbol or identifier of the security. Acceptable formats include regular stocks (e.g., "MSFT"), indices (e.g., "^SPX"), options (e.g., "@MSFT 110122C00020000"), or crypto pairs (e.g., "BTCUSD:DEFAULT"). | Yes | "MSFT" |
year |
The fiscal year or a shortcut like "ly" (last year), "lq" (last quarter), etc. | Yes | 2022 |
quarter |
A calendar quarter number (1, 2, 3, or 4). If left blank, defaults to "1" in the backend. | No | 2 |
TTM |
Set this to "TTM" for trailing twelve months data. | No | "TTM" |
?? Note: If the provided symbol is invalid, the function returns "NA."
Return Value
The formula returns a numeric value representing the company’s sales per employee for the specified period. If data is unavailable or the user’s license is invalid, the function returns "NA".
Date Input Formats
You can supply dates in multiple ways:
- Cell references:
=hf_Sales_per_Employee(A1, 2022)
- Direct dates in quotes:
=hf_Sales_per_Employee("MSFT", "2024-03-15")
- Using Excel date functions:
=hf_Sales_per_Employee("MSFT", TEXT(A1,"yyyy-mm-dd"))
? Pro Tip: Use the built-in shortcuts like
"lq"
,"ly"
, and"lt"
to automatically fetch the last quarter, last year, or last 12 months data.
Examples and Usage
Below are practical examples demonstrating how to use this function effectively:
-
Basic year-based query:
=hf_Sales_per_Employee("MSFT", 2022)
Returns the sales per employee for Microsoft in 2022.
-
Specifying a quarter:
=hf_Sales_per_Employee("MSFT", 2022, 2)
Returns the value for the second quarter of 2022.
-
Using trailing twelve months (TTM):
=hf_Sales_per_Employee("MSFT", 2022, 3, "TTM")
Returns the trailing twelve months value for the third quarter of 2022.
-
Shortcuts for historical data:
- Last quarter (LQ):
=hf_Sales_per_Employee("MSFT", "lq")
- Last quarter minus one (LQ-1):
=hf_Sales_per_Employee("MSFT", "lq-1")
- Last year (LY):
=hf_Sales_per_Employee("MSFT", "ly")
- Last year minus one (LY-1):
=hf_Sales_per_Employee("MSFT", "ly-1")
- Last twelve months (LT):
=hf_Sales_per_Employee("MSFT", "lt")
- Previous last twelve months (LT-1):
=hf_Sales_per_Employee("MSFT", "lt-1")
- Last quarter (LQ):
?? Note: This formula may require an active internet connection because MarketXLS retrieves data from external APIs.
Common Questions
-
Why do I get "NA" as a result?
- You may have provided an invalid symbol.
- Data for the specified period may not be available.
- Your MarketXLS license may not include this feature.
-
Is there a performance impact on large spreadsheets?
- Yes. Because this function makes external API calls, using a large number of instances on one sheet might slow down recalculations.
- Optimize your sheet using a limited number of calls, or use references to store repeated data.
-
Can I compare multiple companies with this formula?
- Yes. Simply replicate the function across cells, changing the
Symbol
parameter for each company.
- Yes. Simply replicate the function across cells, changing the
-
What if the company reports unusual quarterly data?
- The function depends on reported historical fundamentals from MarketXLS data feeds. If unusual or out-of-schedule data is reported, the function may return "NA" or default to the most recent valid figure.
-
How do I use it for options or indices?
- Indices (like "^SPX") and options ("@MSFT 110122C00020000") might not have meaningful employee data. The function will likely return "NA" for those.
? Pro Tip: Combine
hf_Sales_per_Employee
with other fundamental formulas likehf_Revenue
andhf_Cost_of_Revenue
to get a complete picture of a company’s operational efficiency.
- Related Functions:
- Revenue (Historical)
- Cost Of Revenue (Historical)
- Gross Profit (Historical)
- R & D Expenses (Historical)
- Selling General and Administrative Expense (Historical)