A stricter liquidity test that strips out inventory and asks: can you pay your bills with what's already liquid?
The quick ratio (also called the acid test) measures whether you can cover your short-term liabilities using only your most liquid assets — cash, short-term investments, and accounts receivable. It intentionally excludes inventory and prepaid expenses because those can't be converted to cash quickly in a pinch.
It's a tougher version of the current ratio. The current ratio includes everything you could theoretically liquidate within a year. The quick ratio only counts what you could liquidate within days or weeks.
The current ratio can paint a rosy picture when most of your current assets are sitting in inventory. A retailer with $500K in inventory and $20K in cash has a great current ratio but couldn't make an emergency payment. The quick ratio strips away that illusion.
For service businesses without inventory (agencies, consultancies, software companies), the quick ratio and current ratio are usually close. But for product businesses, the gap between the two ratios tells you how dependent you are on selling inventory to meet obligations — which is a real risk if demand drops.
A quick ratio above 1.0 means you can cover all short-term debts without selling inventory. Below 1.0 means you'd need to liquidate inventory or find other sources of cash. Lenders pay close attention to this number.
Example: A wholesale distributor has $60K cash, $140K in receivables, $300K in inventory, and $180K in current liabilities. Current ratio = ($60K + $140K + $300K) / $180K = 2.78 — looks healthy. Quick ratio = ($60K + $140K) / $180K = 1.11 — much tighter. If customers slow down purchases and inventory doesn't move, the real liquidity picture is thin.
Quick Ratio = (Cash + Short-Term Investments + Accounts Receivable) / Current Liabilities
Or equivalently: (Current Assets - Inventory - Prepaid Expenses) / Current Liabilities
CentSight calculates your quick ratio alongside your current ratio from your balance sheet data. It tracks both over time and highlights when the gap between them widens — a sign that your liquidity is increasingly dependent on inventory. Ask “What's my quick ratio?” and CentSight shows the number with the underlying breakdown of liquid assets and liabilities.
CentSight tracks your quick ratio in real time, so you know whether you can cover obligations without counting on inventory sales.
Join the Waitlist