Expert: Ken Marron - 10/4/2006

Question
I am studying IT at college and I am still unsure how to work out percentages! I have to work out a percentage of sales of a regional company with the total sales of a company and the formula my lecturer has given me is          =B2/$B$7 (B2 value is £32000 for the regional sales and B7 is £197000)  Please help as this problem is holding me back and my lecturer thinks that I should be able to do this by now.  Thankyou very much for taking the time.

Answer
Hi Catherine,

I hear you, I have a difficult time remembering how all the different percentages work also. Here is a link to basic percentage information that may help.

http://www.netcomuk.co.uk/~jenolive/percent1.html

Your formula is correct

=B2/$B$7

This will give you what percentage 32000 pounds regional sales is compared to 197000 pounds of total sales.

So you would divide the regional sales by total sales. The answer you get will be in decimal format as .162436 In Excel you can select this cell that has the formula and then go to the Excel menu and select "Format" then "Cells..." then the "Number" tab then "Percentage" fromt the list on the left side then click "OK". The will change the format to 16.24%

Or another way of putting it the Regional Sales is 16.24% of total Sales.

Thanks
Ken