need to arrive at formula

Question

FY2015 budget is 9000
Final expense is 9238
making a difference of -2.64%

The expenses projected were 9300, making the projected vs actual % difference -.67%

How do you arrive at -.67%? What is the formula?

Answer 1

Any time there is a percent difference, it is very important to determine the "base value" to use as the denominator (of course, the difference is the numerator).  Here, the problem asks for the percent difference from the projected expenses, so that value is the denominator.

 

    ( (actual - projected) / projected ) * 100%

     ( (9238 - 9300) / 9300 ) * 100%

       -0.67 %