How to Calculate Percentage of Increase

Calculating percentage increases and decreases enables a business owner to keep expenditures in line with income. Nothing paints a quicker picture of your financial health than looking at past and present earnings and expenditures, and nothing shows that more clearly than percentages.

Things You'll Need

• Calculator

Instructions

Instructions

1. Note your starting number. For example, in the first six months of last year, you spent $5,000 on advertising.

2. Compute the number for that same category in current dollars. This year, your advertising expenditures for that same period are $5,500.

3. Subtract the old number from the new number. In this case, $5,500 minus $5,000. You had an increase of $500.

4. Divide the increase ($500) by the original starting number ($5,000). The resulting decimal, .10 or 10 percent , is the percentage increase from last year to this year. The same formula applies to decreases.

Tips & Warnings

• Use the percentage of increase to evaluate gross margins, cost of goods sold, total revenue and other financial ratios to stay abreast of your company's financial well-being.

• Compare your company's percentages with those of other businesses in your industry to better understand your competition.

• Never forget to move your decimal to the right two places before writing your answer as a percent. In this example, .043 = 4.3%.

Resources

• Read this Article in Portuguese
• Read this Article in UK English