Financial ratios are the most common and widespread tools used to analyze a business' financial standing. Ratios are easy to understand and simple to compute. They can also be used to compare different companies in different industries. Since a ratio is simply a mathematically comparison based on proportions, big and small companies can be use ratios to compare their financial information. In a sense, financial ratios don't take into consideration the size of a company or the industry. Ratios are just a raw computation of financial position and performance.