When you set up a budget in Excel with the proper formulas to calculate the factors, it is a great place to see how an adjustment in income (up or down) will affect your bottom line. It's been a great day at work. Say your boss just came in and told you that you got a promotion to a manager position and with that a raise to your take-home pay of 5%. He also noted that you would be required to have a manager parking spot for $50 a month and the key to the executive washroom cost $50 a month. Additionally, you would need business suits which require dry cleaning total average monthly cost when spread 12 months = $200 a month (you like good suits). NOTE: There will also be an increase in your Give section as we want to continue to give back to the lord. With that being said was it such a good day? Things are not always what they seem. I remember once in my career getting a significant pay raise the bumped me up a tax bracket and I ended up with less take-home paytaking how less is never a good day. So, let's use excel to tell you if it is a good day or a bad day. Step 1 Copy the Master Budget file into a new worksheet. Step 2 Rename the worksheet as Simple % Increase Status Check: At this point, you should have 2 worksheets 1. Master Budget 2. Simple % Increase Step 3 1. Find the Cell with that calculated Net Income/Loss Figure (cell D43 if you did not add any rows). 2. In the cell directly under that cell and manually type in the calculated amount from Cell D43 of the Master Budget 3. In the cell to the left type in "Baseline Net Before Raise" 4. Align the text to the right and Set the Font color to red and bold the text. Step 4 1. In the row directly under (C45) Type "Percentage Salary Increase." 2. Format it exactly as you did the text above it. 3. In the D column associated with that row enter 5% (or.05) (in the starter file, this would have been cell D45, if you added any rows, it will be different) Step 5 1. Directly below the cell you typed in "Percentage Salary Increase" Type in "Good Raise or Bad Raise" making it Bold and in red. 2. In the D column associated with that row enter a formula that subtracts The Baseline Net Before Raise from the calculated Net Income/Loss. (It is very critical to get this formula right or your results will be reversed)