Frequently asked questions
Straight answers about benchmarking, margins and how Playbookly works.
How do I benchmark my company's financial performance against competitors?
Upload your profit-and-loss statement to Playbookly's free benchmark and you are compared against companies in the same industry and revenue band in about three minutes. Playbookly builds your peer cohort from official registry filings, computes a Z-score for each metric, and shows where you sit on the curve. Start at /benchmark/start; a free account opens the full graded report.
What is a good EBITDA margin for a small or mid-sized business?
There is no single good EBITDA margin — a good margin is whatever the top quartile of your peer cohort earns at your industry and revenue band. The same percentage can be strong in one sector and ordinary in another. Playbookly computes your actual percentile against that cohort from official filings, free.
How can a small or mid-sized business apply Private Equity value-creation methods without selling?
Playbookly turns Private Equity value-creation methods into structured playbooks your own team runs, with no sale and no change of ownership. Margin expansion, working-capital release, pricing power and exit readiness break into two-week sprints, guided by AI specialists embedded in your departments. The free benchmark shows which gaps are worth the most first.
What does a fractional CFO or consultant get from Playbookly?
Consultants and fractional CFOs get a portfolio console in Playbookly: every client benchmarked and graded against sector peers, AI-recommended playbooks, sprint-level progress, and an auto-prepared brief before each call. The AI does the analysis so you keep judgment and relationships. Consultants earn a referral fee of 20% of the platform subscription fee for each referred client's first year, plus half of the tiered success fee the platform charges on measured profit improvement. Apply at /for-consultants.
Is the Playbookly benchmark really free?
Yes — the Playbookly benchmark is free and needs no card. Upload your profit-and-loss statement at /benchmark/start, with no account, and see your results in about three minutes; a free account unlocks and saves the full graded report. Paid subscriptions cover playbook execution, the AI team and dashboards; success fees apply only to measured profit improvement.
Where does Playbookly's benchmark data come from?
Playbookly's model is built on 10M+ company financials; your peer comparison runs against 1.85M+ official-registry company records. Two numbers, two jobs. The registries are SEC EDGAR in the US, INPI in France, Companies House in the UK, PRH in Finland and Brønnøysundregistrene in Norway.
Can I just use ChatGPT to benchmark my company's P&L?
A general chatbot has no peer data, so it can summarize your profit-and-loss statement but cannot tell you where you rank. Playbookly matches you to real companies from official registry filings, grades 22 KPIs against that cohort, then runs the playbooks that close the gaps. Your figures never train public models. Try the free benchmark.