Accounting Ratio
An accounting ratio relates financial-statement amounts to analyze margins, liquidity, leverage, efficiency, or returns. Learn formulas and comparison risks.
Choose a subsection first. Deeper term pages live inside each subsection, which keeps large topic hubs readable.
An accounting ratio relates financial-statement amounts to analyze margins, liquidity, leverage, efficiency, or returns. Learn formulas and comparison risks.
An accounting standard is an authoritative financial-reporting requirement governing recognition, measurement, presentation, or disclosure for entities within its scope.
Accounts receivable turnover compares net credit sales with average trade receivables to measure collection speed and working-capital efficiency.
Accretion is a gradual increase in a financial carrying amount or per-share measure, commonly used for bond discounts, obligations, and pro forma EPS.
Events after period end that provide evidence about conditions already existing at the reporting date and therefore change recognized amounts or disclosures.
An annual report is a company's year-end reporting package, commonly combining financial statements, notes, assurance, management narrative, and governance information.
Annualized income scales a partial-period result to a one-year rate. Learn the formula, worked examples, differences from annual income, and major limitations.
An asset register tracks fixed-asset cost, location, depreciation, impairment, and disposal. See a worked reconciliation and control checklist.
Understand carrying amount, realizable value, identifiable assets, and the records and reconciliations used to support reported asset balances.
Explore asset recognition, current and noncurrent classification, inventory and cash accounts, capitalization, valuation, and fixed-asset controls.
Available-for-sale debt securities are measured at fair value under U.S. GAAP, with specified unrealized changes reported in OCI.
A balance sheet reports assets, liabilities, and equity at a specific date; learn its structure, accounting equation, ratios, and analytical limits.
Learn how assets, liabilities, and equity form the balance sheet, then explore classification, measurement, cutoff, capital, and disclosure terms.
Understand balance-sheet structure, assets, liabilities, equity, classified and liquidity presentations, and the accounting equation.
Learn balance-sheet structure, the accounting equation, opening balances, reporting dates, cutoff, and post-balance-sheet event analysis.
A financial analysis baseline is the reference used to measure change. Learn how historical, budget, peer, and normalized baselines affect conclusions.
Capital turnover compares revenue with average capital employed to show how intensively a business uses its capital base.
Capitalized interest is eligible borrowing cost added to a qualifying asset, with later expense recognized through depreciation, amortization, or sale.
Learn how capitalization, monetary classification, PP&E cost, depreciation, impairment, and capitalized interest affect long-lived asset reporting.
Cash earnings is a nonstandard earnings measure that adjusts selected accounting items. Learn why it differs from operating cash flow, EBITDA, and free cash flow.
Cash flow coverage ratio is a family of measures comparing operating cash flow with a clearly defined debt or payment obligation.
Cash flow from financing activities reports cash raised from or returned to lenders and owners through debt, equity, distributions, and related transactions.
Cash flow from investing activities reports cash used for or received from long-term assets, investments, loans, and business acquisitions or disposals.
Cash Flow Statement and Operating Cash Flow covers Cash Inflows and Outflows, Net, Positive, and Negative Cash Flow, and Operating Cash Flow and Income Comparison for cash-flow quality, …
The cash flow to capital expenditure ratio compares operating cash flow with capital spending to assess internal funding capacity.
The cash ratio compares unrestricted cash, equivalents, and defined near-cash investments with current liabilities.
The cash-flow statement reconciles beginning and ending cash by classifying period cash movements as operating, investing, or financing activities.
A switch from one accounting policy or principle to another, distinguished from a revised estimate or correction of an error.
Channel stuffing pushes excess product to distributors near period end; analysts must test control, returns, side agreements, collections, and end demand.
A common-size financial statement expresses each line as a percentage of a selected base, making composition and relative comparisons easier to evaluate.
Comprehensive income combines profit or loss with other comprehensive income and requires analysis of tax, recycling, attribution, and accumulated OCI.
Consolidated financial statements present a parent and controlled entities as one economic entity.
Consolidation is a financial reporting term used in filings, statements, disclosures, ratios, or liquidity analysis.
Consolidation adjustments combine group accounts and eliminate intragroup balances, transactions, and unrealized profit from consolidated statements.
Potential asset arising from uncertain future events, usually disclosed only when realization is sufficiently likely.
Continuing operations are the income-statement activities remaining after results that qualify as discontinued operations are presented separately.
An internal income statement that separates variable and fixed costs to show contribution margin, break-even behavior, and operating leverage.
Core reports and disclosures for understanding financial position, performance, cash flows, equity changes, and the notes behind reported amounts.
Corporate Cash Flow covers Cash Flow Statement and Operating Cash Flow, Expense Controls and Operating Costs, Free Cash Flow, Capex, and Investment Cash Flows, Profitability, Margins, and …
Current assets are short-term resources expected to become cash, be sold, or be consumed within a year or operating cycle.
Liquidity ratio comparing current assets with current liabilities to gauge short-term balance-sheet coverage.
DIO estimates how many days of cost are held in average inventory and connects stock levels with the cash conversion cycle.
Days working capital expresses average net working capital as equivalent days of revenue and should not be confused with the cash conversion cycle.
The debt-to-equity ratio compares defined debt with shareholders equity. Learn the formula, liability-based variant, example, and limitations.
The defensive interval estimates how many days liquid assets could support defined cash operating expenditures without new revenue.
EPS dilution reflects qualifying potential shares in diluted earnings per share. Learn the methods for options, warrants, convertibles, and exclusions.
A directors' report is a board-approved statutory report required in some jurisdictions to provide specified company, director, dividend, and other information.
A discontinued operation is a qualifying disposed or held-for-sale component reported separately from continuing operations. Learn IFRS and U.S. GAAP criteria.
Distributable profit is the amount legally available for owner distributions under an applicable framework. Learn why it differs from net income and cash.
Dividends in arrears are accumulated unpaid cumulative preferred dividends. Learn how to calculate them and distinguish arrears from a payable.
Dividends payable are declared cash distributions not yet paid. Learn when the liability arises, how it is recorded, and why reporting dates matter.
The DuPont formula decomposes ROE into profit margin, asset turnover, and financial leverage to identify the source of shareholder return.
Earnings, EBITDA, valuation-multiple, and performance-ratio terms for comparing firms and interpreting operating results.
Earnings before tax is profit after operating, financing, and nonoperating items but before income tax expense or benefit.
Earnings, profit, liquidity, turnover, and operating-performance measures used in financial analysis.
The EBITDA-to-sales ratio, or EBITDA margin, divides defined EBITDA by revenue. Learn the formula, reconciliation, uses, and limitations.
EDGAR is the SEC system used to receive, disseminate, search, and retrieve public filings, exhibits, amendments, and structured financial data.
Learn how the effective interest method calculates interest and amortizes a bond discount, premium, fees, or transaction costs over time.
The Enron scandal involved fraudulent reporting, improper off-balance-sheet transactions, conflicts, weak controls, and misleading disclosures.
The equity multiplier compares assets with equity, showing the leverage component of DuPont analysis and the effects of a small equity base.
The equity ratio divides shareholders equity by total assets. Learn the formula, worked example, balance-sheet identity, and limitations.
A subsidiary is excluded from consolidation only when the reporting framework permits; compare IFRS and FRS 102 treatment of unconsolidated subsidiaries.
A consolidation exemption can relieve a qualifying parent from preparing group statements; eligibility differs under IFRS 10, FRS 102, and company law.
A fiduciary fund reports resources a state or local government controls for beneficiaries outside the government's own programs.
Financial disclosures provide statement, note, schedule, and narrative information needed to understand reported amounts, judgments, risks, and obligations.
Contractual payment and exchange obligations analyzed by counterparty, cash flow, maturity, measurement, priority, liquidity, and risk.
Review opening balances, reporting-date cutoff, post-balance-sheet events, and audit evidence affecting financial position.
Process of preparing and communicating financial statements, notes, and related disclosures to defined users.
The UK Financial Reporting Council sets standards and codes and monitors reporting and audit. Learn its authority, reviews, enforcement, and limits.
Formal accounting report presenting an entity's financial position, performance, cash flows, or changes in equity.
Financial statement fraud is an intentional material misstatement or omission designed to deceive users; learn common schemes, warning signs, and evidence.
Financial statement terms for assets, liabilities, earnings, cash flow, disclosures, filings, ratios, consolidation, and reporting quality.
Interim reporting segment within a fiscal year, with quarter length, year-to-date presentation, and seasonality affecting comparison.
Annual accounting and reporting cycle that may follow a calendar year, a non-calendar year, or a 52/53-week structure.
Closing date of an annual accounting cycle, when cutoff, close procedures, estimates, and subsequent-event review shape the statements.
Fixed asset turnover compares revenue with average net property, plant, and equipment to assess productive-asset intensity.
The fixed-asset-to-equity capital ratio measures how much of a company’s long-lived asset base is supported by shareholders’ equity rather than borrowed money.
Float has several finance meanings, including tradable shares, payment-clearing timing, cash kept for transactions, and premiums held before insurance claims are paid.
Financial statement footnotes explain accounting policies, estimates, debt, commitments, risks, and details behind amounts reported in the primary statements.
Special reporting terms for pro forma statements, adjusted statements, personal statements, statements of affairs, and summary statements.
Form 10-K is the annual SEC filing that reports a U.S. public company's business, risks, audited financial statements, MD&A, and controls.
Form 10-Q is the SEC quarterly filing that updates interim financial statements, MD&A, risks, controls, and material developments.
Form 20-F is the SEC annual report and registration form used by eligible foreign private issuers, with audited financial statements and cross-border disclosure.
Form 8-K is the SEC current report used to disclose specified significant company events between annual and quarterly filings.
Basic SEC registration form for U.S. issuers, commonly used for IPOs and other registered securities offerings when a shorter form is unavailable.
Short-form SEC registration statement eligible U.S. reporting issuers may use for specified offerings, including many shelf and follow-on transactions.
Fund balance is the residual current financial resources reported in a governmental fund after liabilities and deferred inflows are considered.
Government fund-accounting terms for fund types, measurement bases, fiduciary resources, and fund-balance classifications.
G&A expenses are central management and support costs not directly assigned to production or selling. Learn common items, an example, and analysis risks.
The general fund is a government's primary operating fund for resources and activities not required to be reported in another fund.
A governmental fund reports short-term financial resources used for tax-supported state and local government services and fiscal accountability.
Gross income means income before specified deductions, but the deductions differ across business accounting, payroll, lending, and tax contexts.
Gross margin is gross profit divided by revenue. Learn the formula, work through an example, and understand what changes the percentage.
GMROI measures the gross margin dollars earned for each dollar invested in average inventory at cost.
Gross profit is revenue less the costs assigned to goods or services sold. Learn the formula, cost classifications, worked example, and analytical limits.
Gross revenue is recognized revenue measured before specified returns, allowances, rebates, discounts, or other contra-revenue deductions.
Income smoothing reduces fluctuations in reported earnings through accounting judgments or business decisions, with outcomes ranging from legitimate to misleading.
An income statement shows revenue, expenses, and profit or loss over a period and helps readers evaluate margins, growth, and earnings quality.
Income tax payable is unpaid current income tax owed to tax authorities. Learn its calculation, journal entries, roll-forward, presentation, and deferred-tax differences.
Learn how revenue becomes gross profit, operating income, net income, and earnings per share, and how classification affects financial-statement analysis.
Integrated reporting connects strategy, governance, performance, prospects, and resources to explain how an organization creates, preserves, or erodes value over time.
Intellectual capital covers knowledge-based resources and relationships that support a business. Learn its types, accounting limits, and analyst evidence.
An intercompany transaction refers to any business transacted between entities within the same corporate group, including sales, loans, and the transfer of goods or services.
The interest coverage ratio compares EBIT with interest expense to assess the earnings cushion available for financing costs.
Interest income, also called interest revenue, is earnings from loans and interest-bearing assets. Learn accrual, effective-interest, cash, and credit-loss effects.
Financial statements for a period shorter than a full financial year, often presented as a condensed reporting package.
Inventory is goods held for sale, work in production, or materials and supplies used to produce goods or services.
Inventory turnover compares cost of goods sold with average inventory to measure stock velocity and working-capital efficiency.
Lehman Brothers Scandal is a reporting-quality concept used to evaluate financial statement corrections, prior errors, and investor trust.
A liquidation dividend is a distribution during a partial or complete corporate liquidation. Learn the claims waterfall, recovery math, and key risks.
The long-term debt-to-total assets ratio measures what portion of a company's assets is financed specifically by long-term debt.
Learn how to read management discussion and analysis for operating results, liquidity, capital resources, known trends, and critical accounting estimates.
Marketable securities can be sold or transferred, while cash equivalents must also meet narrow maturity, convertibility, and value-risk conditions.
Minority interest, now called noncontrolling interest, is subsidiary equity not attributable to the parent in consolidated statements.
A negative consolidation difference can indicate a bargain purchase when acquired identifiable net assets exceed consideration and other acquisition amounts.
Net income is bottom-line profit after recognized expenses, gains, losses, and taxes. Learn the calculation, attribution, EPS connection, and limitations.
Net liquid assets subtract current liabilities from a defined pool of cash and readily realizable assets to estimate near-term liquidity headroom.
Events after period end that indicate conditions arising later and therefore do not change period-end amounts, although material events may require disclosure.
A non-cash charge reduces reported earnings without an immediate cash outflow, such as depreciation, impairment, or stock compensation.
Non-monetary assets are not rights to fixed currency amounts. Learn the classification, examples, foreign-exchange treatment, risks, and common mistakes.
A non-operating expense is an expense or loss presented outside operating profit, often arising from financing, investing, or incidental events.
Non-operating income is income or gains presented outside operating profit because they do not arise from the entity's main operating activities.
A nonrecurring charge is an expense presented as unlikely to repeat, but recurrence, cash effects, and economic relevance require evidence.
General-purpose financial statements provide information about resources, claims, performance, and cash flows that supports capital-allocation and stewardship decisions.
Off-balance-sheet items explained through commitments, guarantees, structured entities, recognized amounts, disclosures, risks, and analysis.
An opening balance is an account's amount at the start of a period, normally derived from the prior closing balance after required adjustments.
An operating and financial review is management or directors' narrative explaining operations, financial position, strategy, risks, and prospects under the applicable reporting framework.
Operating cash flow is the net cash generated or used by an entity's principal revenue-producing activities during a reporting period.
Operating cash flow margin divides cash from operating activities by revenue. Learn the formula, reconciliation, interpretation, and limitations.
The operating cash flow ratio compares period cash generated from operations with average current liabilities.
Operating income measures profit from the operating part of a business. Learn its calculation, margin, differences from EBIT and EBITDA, and limitations.
Operating margin is operating income divided by revenue. See a worked example, compare nearby margins, and learn the ratio limitations.
Options backdating involves the practice of issuing stock options retroactively to benefit the option holder.
Residual current-liability line containing smaller or aggregated obligations that require note-level review by nature, timing, and risk.
Snapshot of an individual's assets, liabilities, net worth, liquidity, and contingent obligations used in lending and financial planning.
Pooling-of-Interests Method is a group-reporting concept used to combine parent, subsidiary, and controlled-entity financial statements.
Events after the reporting date may adjust period-end amounts or require disclosure, depending on when the underlying condition arose and the reporting framework.
Pre-acquisition profits are earnings accumulated before control is obtained; they affect acquisition-date net assets and goodwill, not post-acquisition group profit.
Inflation-restated statements explained through IAS 29 scope, monetary and non-monetary items, index adjustments, and net monetary gains or losses.
Pro forma financial statements show a hypothetical financial effect, often by applying a transaction or planning scenario to historical or forecast information.
PP&E are tangible long-lived assets used in operations. Learn recognition, capitalized cost, depreciation, impairment, disposal, and analysis with an example.
A proprietary fund reports a government's business-type or internal service activities using accrual accounting and an economic resources focus.
Recognizing the effect of an accounting estimate change in the current period and future periods affected, without rewriting prior results using hindsight.
A proxy statement, usually filed as Form DEF 14A, explains shareholder voting items, directors, executive pay, ownership, governance, and meeting procedures.
Learn how shareholders vote by proxy, how record and beneficial ownership affect instructions, and how to evaluate quorum, abstentions, and broker non-votes.
Public-reporting terms for annual reports, SEC filings, disclosure rules, reporting standards, proxy material, and filing periods.
Quarterly earnings summarize financial performance for a fiscal quarter and require careful comparison of periods, margins, cash flow, guidance, and adjustments.
The quick ratio compares cash, short-term investments, and collectible receivables with current liabilities while excluding inventory and prepaids.
Navigate financial ratios, common-size statements, trends, margins, returns, liquidity, leverage, coverage, and efficiency analysis.
SEC disclosure filing used to register securities, including the investor prospectus, additional filed information, signatures, and exhibits.
Regulation S-K is the SEC's integrated disclosure framework for business, risk, MD&A, governance, compensation, transaction, and exhibit information.
Regulation S-X governs the form and content of financial statements, schedules, acquired-business statements, and pro forma information in covered SEC filings.
A reportable segment is an operating segment disclosed separately because it meets accounting thresholds or is otherwise significant to users.
Financial-statement measurement date that anchors balances, transaction cutoff, classifications, and subsequent-event analysis.
A reporting entity is the bounded economic activity represented by general-purpose financial statements, which may differ from a legal entity.
Time span covered by financial performance and cash-flow reporting, with period length, cutoff, and comparability central to analysis.
Calendar and period terms for fiscal years, fiscal quarters, reporting dates, reporting periods, and year-end reporting.
Reserve and capital-maintenance concepts used to analyze equity restrictions, distributions, redemptions, revaluations, and capital impairment.
Restricted cash is money subject to legal or contractual limits that prevent its use for general purposes until specified conditions are met.
Retained earnings are cumulative profits and losses after dividends and direct adjustments. Learn the formula, statement effects, and key limitations.
Applying a new accounting policy to prior periods as though it had always been used, subject to transition provisions and practicability.
ROA compares profit with average total assets, showing how profit margin and asset efficiency combine.
ROE compares profit available to common shareholders with average common equity and separates operating performance from leverage.
Return on revenue divides a defined profit measure by revenue. Learn why the numerator varies and how it relates to operating and net margins.
Revenue is income from ordinary activities. Learn when revenue is recognized, how it differs from cash and billings, and how analysts assess its quality.
Revenue vs. Profit is a financial reporting term used in filings, statements, disclosures, ratios, or liquidity analysis.
SEC filings are formal reports, registration statements, ownership disclosures, proxy materials, and other records submitted under U.S. securities laws.
SEC Rule 12g-1 applies asset and holder-of-record thresholds that can affect Exchange Act registration of an equity security class.
SG&A combines selling costs and administrative overhead. Learn common components, the SG&A ratio, a worked income-statement example, and comparison risks.
Shareholder equity is the residual accounting interest after liabilities. Learn its formula, components, rollforward, and limits as a valuation measure.
A shareholder proposal asks a company or its board to take specified action and may qualify for inclusion in U.S. proxy materials under SEC Rule 14a-8.
SSAP can mean a withdrawn UK Statement of Standard Accounting Practice or an active U.S. insurance Statement of Statutory Accounting Principles.
Stated value is an amount assigned to no-par shares for legal-capital and accounting purposes. Learn how it differs from par value and market price.
Jurisdiction-specific insolvency disclosure covering assets, creditors, security, realizable value, transactions, and financial history.
The income statement measures accrual-based performance, while the statement of cash flows explains period cash movements and their operating, investing, or financing sources.
The statement of changes in equity reconciles each equity component from opening to closing balance. See its structure, entries, and worked example.
A statement of partners' capital reconciles each partner's opening balance, contributions, allocated results, distributions, and closing capital.
Income-statement amount combining current and deferred income-tax effects attributable to the reporting period.
Total comprehensive income combines profit or loss with other comprehensive income for the period and excludes owner transactions.
The debt-to-assets ratio divides defined debt by total assets. Learn the borrowing and liability variants, worked example, and limitations.
Tracking stock is issuer equity designed to reflect a business group's performance without creating separate ownership. Learn its structure, accounting, and risks.
Trading securities explained through U.S. GAAP debt classification, IFRS 9 FVTPL, fair-value earnings, an example, and analysis risks.
Treasury stock is an issuer's reacquired shares held rather than retired. Learn its equity presentation, entries, EPS effects, and analytical risks.
The treasury stock method estimates incremental shares from options and warrants for diluted EPS. Learn the formula, average-price rule, and limitations.
Trend analysis compares financial data across periods to identify the direction, rate, composition, and possible drivers of change.
Obligations or projected benefit commitments not fully matched by dedicated assets, interpreted by measurement method, date, sponsor, and funding rules.
An unrealized gain or loss is the change in value of an asset or open position before a sale, settlement, or other realization event.
Unrealized intercompany profit is profit embedded in an asset transferred within a group that has not yet been realized through an external transaction.
An unusual item is a material gain, loss, expense, or event whose nature or incidence may require separate analysis and disclosure.
The indirect method reconciles an accrual-based profit subtotal to operating cash flow through noncash, working-capital, and classification adjustments.
A financial statement showing the creation and allocation of wealth by a company, detailing how value added is distributed among stakeholders.
Vertical analysis expresses each financial-statement line as a percentage of a common within-period base to evaluate composition and margins.
Weighted-average shares measure how long common shares were outstanding during a period. See the EPS formula, a worked example, and split adjustments.
Working capital is current assets minus current liabilities. Learn the broad and operating definitions, cash-flow effects, example, and analytical limitations.
Working capital financing funds the timing gap between operating cash payments and customer collections through supplier credit, borrowing, or longer-term capital.
Working capital management coordinates receivables, inventory, payables, and cash so operations remain liquid without tying up avoidable funds.
Working capital turnover compares revenue with average net working capital and requires careful treatment of negative or near-zero denominators.