How to Calculate Year over Year Percentage Change in Excel (with Advanced Technique)

Need to calculate year over year percentage change for your company? You can do that easily with Microsoft Excel. In today’s session, we will show you how to calculate year over year percentage change in Excel. For conducting the session, we’re going to use Microsoft Office 365 version. You can choose your preferred version. Now without further ado let’s begin today’s session.

Here, we will see how to calculate year over year change percentage in Excel. We will do that in both the conventional way and the advanced way as well. Now, let’s dive into the session.

But, before diving into the big picture, let’s get to know about today’s Excel sheet first.
Our Excel sheet is about revenue earned in each year from 2015 to 2020. There are two columns: Year, and Earning Amount. Now, we will calculate the percentage changes year over year.

1. Using Conventional Way to Calculate Year over Year Percentage Change in Excel

For the basic way of calculation, we will use the formula below.

Actually, we use this formula for any kind of percentage changes or to find out the change rate.

• First, you have to select a new cell D6 where you want to keep the result.
• Let’s write the formula given below in cell D6 on the Excel sheet.

It’s obvious that we cannot calculate the change for the first one, as there is nothing before that. Thus, we started counting from the second one. Here, we subtracted the amount of 2015 from the amount earned in 2016 and divided the results by the amount of 2015. Additionally, all our calculations will be done by using cell references.

• Next, press ENTER.

• At this time, to get the result in percentage format, explore the Number section on the Home tab >> Select Percentage.

Finally, you will get the value in your desired format.

•  Now, you can write the formula for the rest of the rows or simply use the Excel AutoFill feature to expand the formula.

Lastly, you will get all the YoY (Year over Year) percentage changes. Here, you will see some negative values. Because for every year you may not earn the amount higher than the previous year. These negative values indicate the losses from last year.

Read More: How to Calculate Percentage Change with Negative Numbers in Excel

2. Applying Advanced Way to Calculate Year over Year Percentage Change

Now let’s see an advanced formula to calculate year over year percentage change. The formula is as follows.

Basically, we use this formula for any kind of percentage changes or to find out the change rate.

• Select a new cell D6 where you want to keep the result.
• Then, write the formula given below in cell D6.

• Press ENTER.

Here, 1 is the decimal equivalent of 100%. Now, when we are dividing two values, it gives us a decimal value. Eventually, every decimal value has an equivalent percentage value. So, it seems, we are subtracting two percentage values instead of decimal values.

• To get the result in percentage format, explore the Number section on the Home tab >> Select Percentage.

Finally, you will get the value in your desired format.

• Now you can write the formula for the rest of the rows or exercise the Excel AutoFill feature.

Read More: How to Show Percentage Change in Excel Graph

3. Performing Cumulative Year over Year Percentage Change Calculation in Excel

Rather than calculating changes year by year, you may need to see the changes over a certain period of time.

When you are calculating cumulative changes, you need to have a common base value. Basically, you need to calculate the changes using that base value. The formula is as follows.

Now, let’s see how to do that.

• Select a new cell D6 to keep the result.
• Next, write the formula given below in cell D6.

• Press ENTER.

• To get the result in percentage format, explore the Number section on the Home tab and select Percentage.

Here, our base value is the amount earned in 2015. Our changes have been measured using that amount. We divided the amounts of each year by the amount of 2015 and subtracted 1 from the result. In this formula, we used the absolute cell reference.

• Now, use the Excel AutoFill feature to AutoFill the corresponding data in the rest of the cells of range D7:D10.

Read More: How to Calculate Percentage Increase Between Three Numbers in Excel

4. Using Excel IFERROR Function to Calculate Year Over Year Percentage Change

You can apply the IFERROR function to calculate year over year change of percentage in Excel. Let’s do something different. Here, we will rewrite the dataset in a different way. In this method, we will find the changes first then we will find out the percentages.

Steps:

• First, write down the revenue earned each year in column C. Also, include the known amount of last year in cell B5.
• Then, you should use the cell value of C5 in cell B6, which will be the last year’s amount.

This should be the last year’s amount and the new year’s amount column.

• Now, you have to select a new cell D5 where you want to keep the change amount.
• Use the formula given below in cell D5.

• After that, press ENTER.

• Drag the Fill Handle icon to AutoFill the corresponding data in the rest of the cells of range D6:D10.

• Again, write the value of cell D5 value in cell E5.
• Then, format it as Percentage.

• Drag the Fill Handle icon to AutoFill the corresponding data in the rest of the cells of range E6:E10.

Read More: How to Calculate Average Percentage Change in Excel

Calculate Year over Year Percentage Increase in Excel

In this section, we will see the calculation of year over year percentage incremental change in Excel. Actually, when the previous year’s amount is less than the present year’s amount then it will be an incremental change. Or, you can say the company made a profit.

Now, let’s talk about the steps. Here, we’re going to use the conventional way for the calculation.

• Select cell D6 and write the formula given below.

• Press ENTER.
• Change the data format from Number to Percentage.

• Drag the Fill Handle icon to AutoFill the corresponding data in the rest of the cells of range D7:D10.

Finally, you get all the YoY (Year over Year) growth percentages with positive results.

Read More: Calculate Percentage Difference Between Two Numbers in Excel

Calculate Year over Year Percentage Decrease in Excel

Now, we will see the calculation of year over year percentage decremental change in Excel. Basically, when the previous year’s amount is more than the present year’s amount then it will be a negative change. Or, you can say the company made a loss. Similarly, we’re going to use the conventional way for the calculation.

• Write the formula given below in cell D6.

• Press ENTER.
• Change the Number format to Percentage.

• You can drag the Fill Handle icon to AutoFill the corresponding data in the rest of the cells of range D7:D10.

Read More: Percentage Difference Between Two Percentages in Excel

Useful Tips

You may need to increase or decrease the decimal places. You can do it in a simple way. Explore the Number section of the Home tab, you will find the Increase Decimal and Decrease Decimal options.

You can choose what you prefer to use. Here you can see, we use the Increase Decimal option.

As a result, you can see by increasing the decimal places the value has been updated. Excel will do this calculation by itself. According to your need, you can use Increase Decimal or Decrease Decimal.

Bonus

You can use today’s practice workbook as a calculator. Here, cells are descriptive in nature, insert amounts in respective fields (column C, and cell B5) will calculate the change.

Download Practice Workbook

Here, we have shared the Excel sheet. So, you can download it from the link below.

Conclusion

That’s all for today’s session. We have tried listing a couple of ways to calculate year over year percentage change in Excel. Hope you will find this helpful. Feel free to comment if anything seems hard to understand. Let us know which of the methods you are going to use. You can also write your own way to do the task.

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