O-Level Judging profitability

What the O-Level syllabus expects for Judging profitability, and how to practise it.

What the syllabus expects

Explain why profitability matters to a business
Break down gross profit or loss and the year's profit or loss
Over as many as three financial years, read what the cost of sales figure, the sales revenue figure, the gross result and the year's overall profit or loss are signalling
Judge how profitable a business is by tracking, across up to three years, the movement in service fee revenue, cost of sales, sales revenue, the gross result and the year's bottom-line profit or loss
Scope: Analysis at unit-cost level is not required
Suggest ways to lift gross profit/loss and the year's profit/loss
Name and work out the profitability ratios
Scope: gross profit margin, mark-up on cost, profit margin, return on equity
Read what the profitability ratios mean over up to three years or set beside another business
Judge a business's profitability from how its profitability ratios trend over up to three years or versus one other business
Suggest ways to raise the profitability ratios