How to Get the Absolute Value in Excel with ABS

ABS removes the minus sign so you can measure the size of a budget variance, whichever direction it goes.

You will learn to

• Measure the size of one variance
• Total variances without plus and minus cancelling out
• Count lines that miss budget by more than 5%

How it works

ABS(number) returns the number without its sign: =ABS(-3700) is 3700. In budget reports that turns “actual minus budget” into the size of the miss, whether a department overspent or underspent.

This matters when you add variances up. Overspends and underspends cancel each other out in a plain SUM, hiding how far off the budget really was. =SUMPRODUCT(ABS(C2:C8-B2:B8)) adds the sizes instead, and ABS(actual-budget)/budget gives a percentage miss you can test against a tolerance.

=ABS(C3-B3)