What are the best financial ratios to monitor your business?

There are several groups of financial ratios which are:

Income
Profitability
Liquidity
Working Capital
Bankruptcy
Long-Term Analysis
Coverage
Leverage

In terms of the best one it depends on what you are trying to evaluate and what type of firm you are - manufacturing versus service.

I agree with BDA1 each industry is going to focus on different ratios. They best way to find out what ratios you should be concentrating on is to look at several industry reports and see what analyst look at in your industry

We look at profitability ratios the most. However you have to be cautious about looking at any one ratio and drawing any type of conclusion from it.

The first 3 mentioned by BDA1 are the most popular ratios used by small businesses.