software

( Budget/Actual)-1
((Actual - Budget)/Budget)
This is not an excel question, but here is the answer
gt; ( Budget/Actual)-1
Budget Actual
= -------- - --------
Actual Actual

Budget - Actual
= ----------------
Actual

gt; ((Actual - Budget)/Budget)

Actual - Budget
= ----------------
Budget

Do you see it now???
quot;Melquot; gt; wrote in message
...
gt; ( Budget/Actual)-1
gt; ((Actual - Budget)/Budget)
gt;
gt;
quot;Melquot; wrote:
gt; ( Budget/Actual)-1
gt; ((Actual - Budget)/Budget)

The first formula is effectively (budget-actual)/actual.
Conversely, the second formula is effectively
(actual/budget)-1.

Now you can see the difference. The first formula is the
percentage difference between quot;budgetquot; over quot;actualquot;.
The second formula is the percentage difference between
quot;actualquot; over quot;budgetquot;.

The second formual is typically what want in this context.
It answers the question: quot;what percentage over-budget
are we?quot;.

But if you change the names, both formulas might be
equally valid, depending on what you want. For example,
if quot;budgetquot; is quot;myDistancequot; and quot;annualquot; is quot;yourDistancequot;,
the first formula answers the question: quot;what percentage
more (or less) did I travel?quot;; and the second formula
answers the question: quot;what percentage more (or less)
did you travel?quot;.

HTH.