why would a company have a book to bill ratio of less than 1 
a company may have a book to bill ratio of less than 1 if it is shipping out more units than it has received orders for in the current period whether that s a month or a quarter etc if a company ships out more units than it receives orders for in the same period it means it is fulfilling orders from a previous period that is indicative of a decreasing demand for the product the bottom linethe book to bill ratio can help managers and investors learn whether a company is meeting demand has more demand for its products than it is filling or has more supply of its products than demand for them this metric is used widely in the technology industry and helps assess the performance and outlook of individual companies and of an industry sector as a whole 