What are the 4 types of ratios?

Financial ratios express relationships between financial statement items. Although they provide historical data, management can use ratios to identify internal strengths and weaknesses, and estimate future financial performance. Investors can use ratios to compare companies in the same industry. Ratios are not generally meaningful as standalone numbers, but they are meaningful when compared to historical data and industry averages.

Liquidity and the Current Ratio

The most common liquidity ratio is the current ratio, which is the ratio of current assets to current liabilities. This ratio indicates a company's ability to pay its short-term bills. A ratio of greater than one is usually a minimum because anything less than one means the company has more liabilities than assets. A high ratio indicates more of a safety cushion, which increases flexibility because some of the inventory items and receivable balances may not be easily convertible to cash.

Companies can improve the current ratio by paying down debt, converting short-term debt into long-term debt, collecting its receivables faster and buying inventory only when necessary.

Solvency Ratios and Financial Stability

Solvency ratios indicate financial stability because they measure a company's debt relative to its assets and equity. A company with too much debt may not have the flexibility to manage its cash flow if interest rates rise or if business conditions deteriorate.

The common solvency ratios are debt-to-asset and debt-to-equity. The debt-to-asset ratio is the ratio of total debt to total assets. The debt-to-equity ratio is the ratio of total debt to shareholders' equity, which is the difference between total assets and total liabilities.

Profitability Ratios and Margins

Profitability ratios indicate management's ability to convert sales dollars into profits and cash flow. The common ratios are gross margin, operating margin and net income margin. The gross margin is the ratio of gross profits to sales. The gross profit is equal to sales minus cost of goods sold.

The operating margin is the ratio of operating profits to sales and net income margin is the ratio of net income to sales. The operating profit is equal to the gross profit minus operating expenses, while the net income is equal to the operating profit minus interest and taxes. The return-on-asset ratio, which is the ratio of net income to total assets, measures a company's effectiveness in deploying its assets to generate profits. The return-on-investment ratio, which is the ratio of net income to shareholders' equity, indicates a company's ability to generate a return for its owners.

Common Efficiency Ratios

Two common efficiency ratios are inventory turnover and receivables turnover. Inventory turnover is the ratio of cost of goods sold to inventory. A high inventory turnover ratio means that the company is successful in converting its inventory into sales.

The receivables turnover ratio is the ratio of credit sales to accounts receivable, which tracks outstanding credit sales. A high accounts receivable turnover means that the company is successful in collecting its outstanding credit balances.

What are some the accounting ratios that is important to measures company’s financial performances? What are the formulas to calculate them?

Accounting ratios analysis is commonly used to the determine a company’s strengths and weaknesses.

It allows the company to measure its efficiency and profitability, as well as determine the relationship between one accounting variable and another on their financial statements.

It can be used to find out the relationship between figures stated in balance sheet, profit or loss statement, and other financial reports.

Some of the most important accounting ratios to determine a business financial performance are:

1. Liquidity Ratios

Liquidity ratios, often known as Balance Sheet ratios, are further divided into:

  • Current Ratio
  • Quick Ratio
  • Cash Ratio

The primary goal of any liquidity ratio is to determine the company’s short-term solvency situation. It indicates the company’s efficiency and ability to pay off existing liabilities and debts with current assets.

The formula for these ratios in accounting are:

Current Ratio = Current Assets / Current Liabilities

Quick Ratio = Current Assets Less Inventory /Current Liabilities

Cash Ratio = Cash + Marketable Securities / Current Liabilities

2. Profitability Ratios

Profitability Ratios are used to assess a company’s aptitude and efficiency in using its capital to generate revenue and, ultimately, profits.

It reflects the relationship of the unit in terms of percent of sales, and is usually expressed in percentage terms.

There are 4 types of profitability ratios in accounting:

Gross Profit Ratio = (Gross Profit / Net Sales) x 100

Net Profit Ratio = (Net Profit / Net Sales) x 100

Operating Expense Ratio = ((Cost of Goods Sold + Operating Expense) / Net Sales) x 100

Return on Capital Employed = (Profit before Interest and Taxes / Capital Employed) x 100

3. Activity Ratios

Activity Ratios are used to evaluate a company’s capacity to manage and turn its assets into revenue and cash. It demonstrates the company’s efficiency in generating income by leveraging its assets.

There are 4 types of activity ratios in accounting:

  • Inventory Turnover Ratio: This ratio calculates the amount of time it takes to turn inventory into sales.
  • Debtors Turnover Ratio: This ratio reflects how quickly credit debtors are turned into cash, or how long it takes.
  • Total Assets Turnover Ratio: This ratio assesses how effectively the company manages its assets in order to create income.
  • Fixed Assets Turnover Ratio: This ratio assesses how effectively the company manages its fixed assets in order to generate income.

The formulas for these ratios in accounting are:

Inventory Turnover Ratio = Cost of Goods Sold / Average Inventory

Debtors Turnover = Net Sales / Average Debtors

Total Assets Turnover = Sales / Average Total Assets

Fixed Assets Turnover = Sales / Average Fixed Assets

What are the 4 types of ratios?

4. Leverage Ratios

Leverage ratio is used to determine the long term solvency aspects of the company, which also comes in 4 types of ratios.

  • Debt to Equity Ratio: It refers to the relationship between the company’s total debts and its entire equity. A low debt to equity ratio, which is used to measure a firm’s leverage capability, usually indicates that the company has solid financial security.
  • Debt Ratio: This ratio describes the relationship between a company’s total liabilities and its total assets.
  • Proprietary Ratio: This ratio describes how the company’s total shareholder money are invested in its total assets.

The formulas for these leverage ratios in accounting are:

Debt Equity Ratio = Total Debt / Total Equity

Debt Ratio = Total Liabilities / Total Capital

Proprietary Ratio = Shareholders Funds / Total Assets

Why Is It Important to Understand Accounting Ratios?

The purpose of accounting ratios are to analyze company’s performance whether it’s stable enough and able to utilize its assets efficiently.

It is also used as a tool to forecast and plan for the future especially in giving an insight for decision making.

Accounting ratios are used not just to analyze a company’s performance internally, but also to compare it to the performance of other organizations in related industries.

As an investor, an understanding about these accounting ratios could help you understand a company’s prospect better.

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What are 4 key financial ratios?

The ratios fall into four categories:.
liquidity ratios..
efficiency ratios..
profitability ratios..
solvency ratios..
Financial Ratio Interactive Calculator Tool..

What are the 3 main ratios?

The three main categories of ratios include profitability, leverage and liquidity ratios.

What are different types of ratios?

Here are the most common types of ratios and the various formulas you can use within each category:.
Liquidity ratios..
Profitability ratios..
Leverage ratios..
Turnover ratios..
Market value ratios..

What are the 5 major categories of ratios?

The following five (5) major financial ratio categories are included in this list..
Liquidity Ratios..
Activity Ratios..
Debt Ratios..
Profitability Ratios..
Market Ratios..