Financial ratios are helpful tools for monitoring your organization’s fiscal health. They can be used as part of a dashboard of financial performance for your board, or to communicate with funders, lenders and other supporters of your organization.

There are as many financial ratios as questions you can ask about financial performance. This resource highlights just a few key measures related to liquidity – the cash position of an organization – and debt – an organization’s ability to take out loans – that are most often used to evaluate balance sheet strength. Review the guide for a quick overview of the ratios and what they mean, and then use the Excel workbook to calculate the ratios for your own organization.