Finance
Compare actual results to budget
=B2-A2How it works in Excel
- A2 is the budget.
- B2 is the actual amount.
- A positive result means actual came in above budget.
- For the percent difference, use =(B2-A2)/A2.
- Above budget is good for sales and bad for costs.
The idea in general
It shows how far reality landed from the plan.
What I assumed
- The budget is in A2 and the actual is in B2.
Check the result on your own data before relying on it.