1992 CENSUS OF FINANCIAL, INSURANCE, AND REAL ESTATE INDUSTRIES Data Item Definitions =>ESTABLISHMENTS An establishment is a single physical location at which business is conducted. It is not necessarily identical with a company or enterprise, which may consist of one establishment or more. Statistics for financial, insurance, and real estate industries represent a summary of reports for individual establishments rather than companies. For cases where a census report was received, separate information was obtained for each location where business was conducted. When administrative records of other Federal agencies were used instead of a census report, no information was available on the number of locations operated. Estimates of this number were derived from a sample and are provided in the financial, insurance, and real estate industries report, Miscellaneous Subjects (FC92-S-3). Each census report was tabulated according to the physical location at which the business was conducted. The count of establishments represents those in business at any time during 1992. When two activities or more were carried on at a single location under a single ownership, all activities generally were grouped together as a single establishment. The entire establishment was classified on the basis of its major activity and all data for it were included in that classification. However, when distinct and separate economic activities (for which different industry classification codes were appropriate) were conducted at a single location under a single ownership, and when conditions prescribed by the SIC manual for recognizing the existence of more than one establishment were met, separate establishment reports for each of the different activities were obtained in the census. =>FIRMS A firm is a business organization or entity consisting of one domestic establishment (location) or more under common ownership or control. All establishments of subsidiary firms are included as part of the owning or controlling firm. For the economic census, the terms "firm" and "company" are synonymous. =>REVENUE (Basic dollar volume measure for financial, insurance, and real estate establishments covered by the census) -- Revenue from all business activities whether or not payment was received in 1992, including net premiums earned by insurance carriers, commissions and fees from all sources, rents, net investment income, interest, dividends, and royalties. Rental revenue from leasing property marketed under operating leases is included, as well as interest earned from property marketed in 1992 under capital, finance, or full payout leases. Revenue also includes the total value of service contracts, amounts received for work subcontracted to others, rents from property sublet to others, and dues and assessments from members. Revenue does not include sales and other taxes collected from customers and remitted directly by the firm to a local, State, or Federal tax agency. Revenue in this report does not include financial, insurance, or real estate revenue of manufacturers, wholesalers, retail, or service establishments, or other businesses whose primary activity is other than finance, insurance, or real estate. =>ANNUAL PAYROLL Payroll includes all forms of compensation, such as salaries, wages, commissions, bonuses, vacation allowances, sick-leave pay, employee contributions to qualified pension plans, and the value of payments in kind (e.g. free meals and lodgings) paid during the year to all employees. Tips and gratuities received by employees from patrons and reported to employers are included. For corporations, payroll includes amounts paid to officers and executives; for unincorporated businesses, it does not include profit or other compensation of proprietors or partners. Payroll does not include commissions paid to independent (nonemployee) agents, such as insurance and real estate agents. Payroll is reported before deductions for social security, income tax, insurance, union dues, etc. This definition of payroll is the same as that used by the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) on form 941. =>LEGAL FORM OF ORGANIZATION The legal form of organization for firms in the mail universe was based on the response to the organizational status inquiry on the various census forms. The legal form of organization of nonmail firms was generally based on information from administrative records of other Federal agencies. Limited data are published in this report on the number of individual proprietors and partnerships. The financial, insurance, and real estate industries report, Establishment and Firm Size Report (Including Legal Form of Organization), FC92-S- 1, presents data by the following legal forms for establishments with payroll: corporations, individual proprietorships, partnerships, and other. =>AUXILIARY ESTABLISHMENTS Each company included in this census was asked to identify and separately report auxiliary locations whose primary functions were to manage, administer, service, or support the activities of the other establishments of the company. However, for companies classified as commercial banks, savings institutions, and credit unions (SIC's 602, 603, and 606); and life insurance carriers, accident and health and medical service plans, fire, marine, and casualty and surety insurance carriers (SIC's 631, 632, 633, 635), all establishments related to the financial and insurance activity were defined as "operating" regardless of their function and are included in this report. Data for all other auxiliary locations are presented in a subsequent report issued as part of the 1992 Enterprise Statistics reports.