Financial
Percent of goal and budget variance formulas (Revenue vs Expense sign rules)
Calculate quota attainment %, remaining amount to goal, and favorable vs unfavorable FP&A variances for both revenue and cost centers.
Why Revenue variance and Expense variance have opposite favorable signs
Percent of Goal (Actual / Target) measures raw pacing (e.g., $42,500 / $50,000 = 85% attainment, with MAX(0, Target - Actual) = $7,500 left to hit quota).
In FP&A budget reporting, Favorable (+) always means higher profit: for Revenue accounts, Favorable Variance = Actual - Budget; for Expense accounts, spending LESS than budget increases profit, so Favorable Variance = Budget - Actual!
| Line Item (A) | Type (B) | Budget (C) | Actual (D) | % of Budget | Favorable Variance |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Subscriptions | Revenue | 50000 | 42500 | 85.0% | -7,500 (Unfavorable) |
| Cloud Hosting | Expense | 12000 | 10500 | 87.5% | +1,500 (Favorable savings) |
Percent of goal and profit-directional variance formulas
A zero target has no defined attainment ratio, so show a message.
=IF(C2=0, "No target", ROUND(D2 / C2, 4))Profit-favorable variance (positive = good for both Revenue & Expense)
Flips the subtraction automatically when Type = "Expense".
=IF(B3="Expense", C3-D3, IF(B3="Revenue", D3-C3, "Unknown type"))Inputs and interpretation
Use positive budgets, numeric actuals and consistent periods/currencies. Favorable here is a sign convention for the isolated budget line, not proof of better business outcomes or overall profit. Missing targets and unknown account types need review.
Try the example
Use the original values or change them to test your understanding.