The results in column E are decimal values with the percentage number format applied. This same formula can be used to calculate things like percent of target, percent of budget, percent of forecast, and so on. Converting this to an Excel formula with cell references, the formula in E5 becomes: As the formula is copied down, the formula returns a decimal number for each city in the list. When these numbers are formatted with the Percentage number format, they are displayed as percentages.
Formatting percentages in Excel
In mathematics, a percentage is a number expressed as a fraction of 100. For example, 25% is read as “Twenty-five percent” and is equivalent to 25/100 or 0.25. Accordingly, the values in column E are decimal values, with the Percentage number format applied.
Negative goal
If you have a negative goal, the formula above won’t calculate correctly. In this case, you can calculate the variance as explained here, then add the variance to 100% to get the percent of goal:
Dave Bruns
Hi - I’m Dave Bruns, and I run Exceljet with my wife, Lisa. Our goal is to help you work faster in Excel. We create short videos, and clear examples of formulas, functions, pivot tables, conditional formatting, and charts.
