MAP is a unique tool that fosters financial literacy as a crucial component for the success and sustainability of business activities.
It allows companies and entrepreneurs to access a periodic analysis of the economic and financial situation of their company, enabling them to understand and interpret the financial information generated, without associated costs and in a digital way. Face to the diagnosis presented, they can reflect on their situation, being able to identify weaknesses and ponder operational aspects of improvement, but also identify opportunities for growth and optimization of resources.
It becomes possible to foster preventive restructuring plans at an early stage of the detection of financial problems, which jointly with a personalized support from IAPMEI´s specialized staff may avoid possible situations of insolvency. MAP causes impact on the economy, when addressing the companies ‘financial crisis and contributing to ensure its growth.

The quantitative assessment of this tool is carried out by the tool itself which was used by more than 230.000 Portuguese companies in 2022. There is also a qualitative assessment that can only be carried out over time and is related to the impact that the use of the information made available by MAP causes on management options and company´s overall performance.
The aim is to disseminate this tool to other countries, as it seems that a high number of economies, especially those in the EU, might want to benefit from a similar cost-effective tool and this innovation is easily replicable.
The aim of MAP is to provide information to the universe of Micro, SMEs, and SMCs, thus contributing to a better perception of their economic-financial situation and its balance´s trend and performance without introducing any corporate scoring mechanism.
The aim is to help identifying more difficult business situations and thus contribute to a timely decision-making process.

The Portuguese Central Bank and the National Institute of Statistics provide IAPMEI with macro indicators of the economic and financial situation of companies. IAPMEI’s algorithm provides economic and financial indicators, as well as a qualitative assessment of the companies’ economic and financial situation. The Portuguese Tax and Customs Authority notifies each company, in its Finance Portal, informing that the information generated by MAP is available on IAPMEI´s website.

The above-mentioned partners benefit from this tool because it answers a priority in their mission, to improve Portuguese companies’ performance, in terms of their financial literacy, revitalization, and recovery of companies.
The main beneficiaries are the universe of Micros, SMEs and SMCs using the tool, that improves their perception of their economic and financial overall performance – in 2022, it covered 236,339 companies.

Based on several indicators, a set of economic and financial ratios (previous year related) is generated and evaluated by IAPMEI. The information is disclosed on IAPMEI´s website.
Between 2021 and 2022, there was a growth of 3,3% in the total of companies covered (236,339). To note that the micro companies had the highest growth, with 3,7% more companies evaluated which complies with the characteristics of the Portuguese business ecosystem.
The evaluation of the impact of timely management decisions on the overall performance of the companies using MAP, will be carried out.
It is important to refer that the Early Warning Mechanism was awarded the Grand Prize of the Jury by the EC in Enterprise European Promotion Awards 2023 (EEPA).

MAP is a free and online tool enabling SMEs to analyse their financial position and take early action, if needed. Economic and financial ratios are generated to make the evaluations.
In 2022 it was used by over 230,000 enterprises, which reveals its great success. IAPMEI is very proud to have developed this pioneer tool in Europe, which is essential for companies to improve their financial literacy, to adopt appropriate measures to prevent financial distress, insolvency and the loss of jobs and skills.
IAPMEI will continue to be committed to increasing this tool to support companies on their innovation and growth path.
There were no setbacks in this project, since it evolved from a previous, much simpler Financial Self-Assessment.

The MAP was developed with IAPMEI's human and financial resources, thus being IAPMEI's intellectual property.
The overall budget initially invested in this initiative of 100.000€ comprises the number of hours per staff used in the technical structuring of the project and in the development of the associated software, as well as the administrative and travel expenses for the dissemination of the project to the national business ecosystem.
The project was made possible by the setup of strong partnerships that have helped to design and present the tool to the companies.
With great motivation, the work done for technical structuring, software, implementation, and dissemination lasted 30 months and turned out to be a huge success.

The development of this pioneer tool emphasizes the relevance of public sector action in the development of companies, promoting financial literacy and in fostering better-informed decision-making, thus allowing a higher operational effectiveness of companies, and it can be considered a source of inspiration replicable in other countries.
To disseminate the use of the tool, a video tutorial was carried out, aiming to convert technical concepts into simple and easy to interpret ideas, which was reflected in the increased confidence of companies and entrepreneurs in the use of this tool.

The public sector plays a fundamental role in the country's economy. Therefore, aiming to impact the competitiveness of the Portuguese companies, the creation and development of the MAP is an example of how public entities should work in partnership, towards a common goal.
The implementation of strategies for the economy requires additional financial and human resources and this is a challenge for any public organization, however, MAP proves that with a limited budget and own human resources, it was possible to create an essential and successful tool, whose impact on the economy is evident in the sheer numbers of its users.

Most strong innovations are originated from less accomplished previous experiences, as well as lessons learnt during the whole process.
The first response to this need was a simpler Financial Self-Assessment Tool, which is still used by a much smaller number of companies. However, as it failed the purpose to be used at a larger scale, made the team aware of the need to build partnerships to strengthen the project.
After being awarded the Grand Jury Prize, by the EC, in the European Enterprise Promotion Awards 2023 (EEPA), IAPMEI was contacted by other countries to learn more about the mechanism: Spain which in the end adopted a more simplified Early Warning Mechanism and Latvia which asked us to join the Early Warning Europe Network.