These are the ratios a lender, an acquirer or an experienced board member reaches for first. They read a business the way a credit analyst does: can it cover its obligations, how hard is its balance sheet working, and how much of its profit survives its cost structure.
Which one you want
EBITDA and Gross Profit establish operating earnings before financing and accounting choices distort the picture. DSCR, Current Ratio, Debt-to-Equity and Times Interest Earned are the solvency and liquidity set — these are the numbers a bank tests a loan application against, and the Business Loan calculator shows what the resulting repayment schedule costs. ROE, ROA and Financial Ratios measure how efficiently capital is being used, and Operating Leverage explains why a small revenue change can produce a large profit swing in a fixed-cost-heavy business.
What the numbers mean
Ratios are comparisons, not verdicts. A current ratio of 1.2 is comfortable for a subscription business collecting cash monthly in advance and alarming for a manufacturer with long inventory cycles. Most lenders want DSCR at or above 1.25 and read debt-to-equity against sector norms rather than an absolute threshold. Run these on a trend across several periods: the direction of travel tells you more than any single quarter's value.