About this resource
Calculating a current ratio of 1.8 is straightforward. Knowing whether 1.8 is good, bad, or irrelevant for a specific company in a specific sector — that is the actual skill this project trains.
Why context changes everything
A retailer with a current ratio of 0.9 might be perfectly healthy. A manufacturer with the same number might be in serious trouble. This project uses 4 companies across different industries to show how the same ratio tells a different story depending on the business model.
The dataset spans 5 years for each company. Trend analysis — not point-in-time snapshots — is where ratio work becomes genuinely useful for decision-making.
What you will build
The main deliverable is a comparative ratio dashboard covering liquidity, profitability, efficiency, and leverage ratios. It is built in a spreadsheet and designed to update automatically when new annual figures are entered.
A written commentary section accompanies the dashboard — 1 page per company, structured around what the numbers suggest and where the analysis has limits.
Skills developed
By the end of this project, reading a set of ratios and forming a reasoned view on financial health takes roughly 25 minutes rather than an afternoon. The process becomes repeatable, not just understandable.
This is intermediate-level work. Some prior exposure to financial statements is assumed — at least enough to know where revenue and total assets appear.