Accounting ratios are effective tools of analysis. They are indicators of managerial and overall operational efficiency. Ratios, when properly used are capable of providing useful information. Ratio analysis is defined as the systematic use of ratios to interpret the financial statements so that the strengths and weaknesses of a firm as well as its historical performance and current financial condition can be determined the term ratio refers to the numerical or quantitative relationship between items/ variables. This relationship can be expressed as:
- Fraction
- Percentages
- Proportion of numbers
These alternative methods of expressing items which are related to each other are, for purposes of financial analysis, referred to as ratio analysis. It should be noted that computing the ratio does not add any information in the figures of profit or sales. What the ratios do is that they reveal the relationship in a more meaningful way so as to enable us to draw conclusions from them.
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