A calculation to measure the approximate number of days a company could operate simply on the cash it currently has on hand. It is equal to quick assets divided by daily operating expenses, and the value it returns is the average number of days that company could use those assets to meet all its expenses. The interval measure is similar to both the current ratio and the quick ratio, in that it gives an idea of how easily a company could fulfill its obligations. The interval measure is sometimes preferred to the other ratios because it returns an approximation of the actual number of days, as opposed to the other ratios, which just return a value that indicates the ease of making the payments.