Blog | IIBT Checklist: Gather These Items Before You Begin
Your 2026 IIBT Prep Checklist
The 2026 INNERGY Industry Benchmarking Tool is open, and the payoff is real: you’ll see exactly how your profit margins, labor costs, and business outlook compare to other shops across the industry.
The whole survey takes most people about 45 minutes, but only if you’ve got the right numbers in front of you before you start. Pull these together first and you’ll cruise right through it.
Section 1 — Your Company
The basics. Should take about two minutes.
✅ Company name, address, and contact info
✅ Your role
✅ Number of full-time employees (FTEs)
✅ Years in business
✅ Primary source of revenue
✅ Whether you’re an INNERGY ERP or Microvellum customer
Section 2 — Business Sentiment
No numbers here, just your honest read on the business. The CEO or owner answers a few dropdown questions about the past six months and the next six.
✅ Economic conditions
✅ Sales pipeline
✅ Cash flow
✅ Labor availability
Section 3 — Operations
A mix of numbers and quick selections. Pull these from your accounting system and estimating software:
✅ Bid win rate (by dollar value, past 12 months)
✅ Current backlog (contracted work not yet invoiced)
✅ Current AR and AP balances
✅ Total assets as of 12/31/25
✅ Total long-term debt
You’ll also answer a few quick questions about your software, what equipment you’re planning to buy, and where you want to improve in the next year. Dropdowns and checkboxes throughout.
Section 4 — Income Statement
This is the meatiest section. You need a full-year P&L from your accounting system. Here’s what to pull:
Revenue
✅ Plant-processed sales (casework, millwork, stairs, doors, panels, countertops)
✅ Non-plant sales (products you resell without touching on the floor)
✅ Installation sales
Direct Material
✅ Plant material cost
✅ Non-plant material cost
Labor — fully loaded (base pay + payroll taxes + benefits)
✅ Direct factory staff
✅ Installation wages (in-house and outsourced)
✅ Indirect factory staff (plant manager, purchasing, quality, maintenance)
✅ SG&A staff (CEO, estimators, sales, accounting, HR, admin, PMs, engineers)
Fixed Costs
✅ Other direct costs (bonding, insurance, sales tax, project general conditions)
✅ Overhead (rent, utilities, equipment leases, software, accounting fees, repairs)
Tip: The survey includes a position chart to help you sort each employee into the right bucket. If you don’t track benefits by department, just prorate your total benefits cost across the labor lines.
Section 5 — Workforce
Pull from payroll. For each role, you need headcount and average hourly rate:
✅ Estimator
✅ Engineer / Drafter
✅ Project Manager
✅ Machine Operator
✅ Journeyman / Custom Assembler
✅ Casegood Assembler / Production Worker
✅ Material Handler
✅ Finisher
✅ Installer
✅ Plant Manager / Foreman
You’ll also answer a few quick questions about turnover, what’s hardest to hire for, and what your team values most.
Tip: If payroll is outsourced, ask your provider for a headcount and average hourly wage report by role. If someone is salaried, divide their annual salary by 2,080 to get an hourly equivalent.
A few things worth knowing
This survey is administered by Inverra, an independent third party. INNERGY does not see your individual responses, only aggregated benchmark data. And everyone who completes the survey receives a $50 gift card from Inverra as a thank-you.
That’s the whole list. Once you’ve got these numbers gathered, the survey itself moves fast. And when results are published, you’ll have something most shop owners never get: a real, apples-to-apples look at how your business compares to the industry.