A company's debts or obligations that are due within one year. Current liabilities appear on the company's balance sheet and include short term debt, accounts payable, accrued liabilities and other debts.

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Essentially, these are bills that are due to creditors and suppliers within a short period of time. Normally, companies withdraw or cash current assets in order to pay their current liabilities.

Analysts and creditors will often use the current ratio, (which divides current assets by liabilities), or the quick ratio, (which divides current assets minus inventories by current liabilities), to determine whether a company has the ability to pay off its current liabilities.

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