Glossary

A shared language for the numbers

Definitions for the statement lines and ratios you see across scorecards and industry reports.

Statements Liquidity Returns

Browse terms How medians work

Term library

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Median Company: A virtual company that would display median performance for the characteristics shown. Ratio medians may represent different firms across metrics.
Industry group: Peer set defined by SIC or NAICS code, optionally filtered by size segment or region.
Size segment: Small / Medium / Large within an industry based on Net Sales percentiles (lower 25% / middle / upper 25%).

Net Sales: Primary revenue figure used as the base for many income-statement percentages.
Cost of Goods Sold (COGS): Direct costs attributable to producing goods or services sold.
Gross Profit: Net Sales minus COGS.
Operating Expenses: Expenses incurred in ordinary operations; may include aggregated categories such as Other Operating Expenses.
Operating Profit / EBIT: Profit from operations before interest and taxes (presentation may vary by report).
Net Profit: Bottom-line earnings after interest, taxes, and other adjustments shown in the statement.

Current Ratio: Current assets divided by current liabilities — near-term coverage of obligations.
Quick Ratio: More liquid assets versus current liabilities (inventory typically excluded).
Working Capital: Current assets minus current liabilities.

Asset Turnover: Sales generated per unit of assets — how hard assets work to produce revenue.
Inventory Turnover: How many times inventory is sold and replaced over a period.
Receivables Turnover / Days Sales Outstanding: Speed of collecting receivables; DSO expresses collection period in days.

For line-item detail inside a specific report, use that report’s Glossary section. Questions about construction of medians are covered in the FAQ.