I am doing an assignment where l have to compare two sales companies to to see which is a better investment and l have to write a memo about it.
Are there any other ways to compare these service companies? Since they do not have Sales or COGS or Shareholder is equity/dividends accounts listed (but only says net income of ~~~), l can not apply most of the other ratios l know of, such as Profit margin without the specific amounts of sales or COGS

l currently used ratios such as Return on Assets, Debt to Total Assets,
Cash Total Debt Coverage, Debt to Equity Ratio, and Common Size Analysis on the balance sheets.

also, there is only total liabilities in the balance sheets (no separation into current and long-term liabilities) so l can not do working capital or current ratio.

please help me! l need to find other ways to compare these two sales companies without sales or COGS accounts!(there is only balance sheet to compare from)
l am talking about sales distributors.
this is not a very detailed assignment
Both companies sell the same products and
What l did was l revised the balance sheets of both companies and from there, l had to make comparisons to find out which is better to write a letter of recommendation of which company is a better investment. But the information on the balance sheet is so limited that l can not even do working capital -___-;;;

Trinity,

you need to define what u mean by Sales Companies. Are u talking about distributors or r u talking about sales firms that r paid a commission. Big difference.

A distributor can be treated like a normal company. It has inventory, accounts payable, receivables, working capital & so on. That is true even if it does not take delivery of the goods (ship from factory for example).

Sales firms r paid commission on total turnover. The do have fixed costs: salaries, benefits & especially travel expenses. They must maintain their sales staff current (through training & classes). They need working capital to meet payroll as commissions may not match liabilities (at least not on a week to week basis). It is the total return on that working capital that is critical. Using ur terminology, l am guessing that u would look at NEBIT vs working capital (Do not forget credit lines or loans). The company with the strongest ratio is where an investor will make most money.