• A vertical balance sheet is one in which the balance sheet presentation format is a single column of numbers, beginning with asset line items, followed by liability line items, and ending with shareholders’ equity line items.
• The vertical balance sheet format is much more popular than the horizontal balance sheet format, because you can use it to include the balance sheets for multiple periods on a single page, using a side-by-side presentation format that may span a large number of reporting periods.

A method of financial statement analysis in which each entry for each of the three major categories of accounts (assets, liabilities and equities) in a balance sheet is represented as a proportion of the total account. The main advantages of vertical analysis is that the balance sheets of businesses of all sizes can easily be compared. It also makes it easy to see relative annual changes within one business.