Working Capital Turnover Ratio

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Working Capital Turnover Ratio

Description: The working capital turnover ratio measures how well a company is utilizing its working capital to support a given level of sales. A high turnover ratio indicates that management is being extremely efficient in using a firm's short-term assets and liabilities to support sales.

Formula: Divide net sales by working capital (which is current assets minus current liabilities). The calculation is usually made on an annual basis, and uses the average working capital during that period. The calculation is:

Net sales
(Beginning working capital + Ending working capital) / 2

Example: ABC Company has $12,000,000 of net sales over the past twelve months, and average working capital during that period of $2,000,000. The calculation of its working capital turnover ratio is:

$12,000,000 Net sales
$2,000,000 Average working capital

= 6.0 Working capital turnover ratio

Cautions: An extremely high working capital turnover ratio can indicate that a company does not have enough capital to support it sales growth; collapse of the company may be imminent. This is a particularly strong indicator when the accounts payable component of working capital is very high, since it indicates that management cannot pay its bills as they come due for payment.