thank you all for the input. they'll get what they get until they can come
up with a better solution!

"Niek Otten" wrote:

Just to add a little to the knowledgeable replies you got already:

Display something like "Not Defined"
I bet they won't dare to correct you

--
Kind regards,

Niek Otten
Microsoft MVP - Excel

"smw2340" wrote in message ...
|I agree with your point there, however, the decision makers I am creating
| this for do not agree. they want to see the % goal attainment whether it is
| positive or negative. this is why i'm stuck on trying to find a formula i
| can imbed that will work.
|
| thank you for your quick response however, i do appreciate the help.
| smw
|
| "David Biddulph" wrote:
|
| The advice is that percentages are pretty meaningless in that situation. If
| you make a small adjustment and think about a case where the goal is to
| break even; how would you define your percentage there?
| In the case you quoted, if you wanted you could look at the difference
| between target and actual, and take that as a percentage of the magnitude of
| the target, so ($100 - (-$100))/abs(-$100) would give a 200% improvement,
| ((-$60) - (-$100))/abs(-$100) would be a 40% improvement, breaking even
| would be a 100% improvement, and achieving the target would give a 0%
| improvement, but (as I said at the start) I don't think that percentages are
| usually very useful in such situations..
| --
| David Biddulph
|
| "smw2340" wrote in message
| ...
| I want to write a formula that calculates the percent attainment of a goal
| i.e. profit goal. If i have a goal of $-100 and actually attain $100
| (positive) profit. What is the formula to write such that the resulting %
| does not contain a negative? Additionally, would like the same formula to
| take into account if goal is $-100 and actually attain $-60, the %
| attainment
| should be positive.
|
| any advise?
|
|
|