Always use (start-finish)/start
if start is in A1 and finish is in B1 then the % change in C1:

=(A1-B1)/A1 formatted as percentage
=100*(A1-B1)/A1 formatted as general
--
Gary''s Student


"Neil R" wrote:

I am looking for a formula that tells me % of increase or decrease, The
problem is that some of my numbers are negitive eg. -147.80 has decreased to
-785.00 I am looking for the % to be a negitive only in this case


Thanks
Neil