This articles covers how to turn variance colour coding on and off.

It also covers how to fix colour coding if it is wrong; that is, how to adjust what is a “good" (green) versus a “bad” or “adverse” (red) result.

How to turn automated color coding (red/green) on and off

To turn on the adverse/favourable variance formatting, go to Settings, Organisation settings, then turn on the toggle "Show favourable / unfavourable variances" under "Organisation values."

Once turned on, favourable variances show as green and unfavourable variances show as red. This means that a positive revenue variance will be green, but a positive cost variance will be red.

Note: when this option is turned off, variances all remain black, with no colour coding.

Below is an example of a report in which favourable / unfavourable variance formatting has been turned on. You can see that where Budget is below actuals in sales, the negative variance is red, but where Budget is below actuals in costs, the negative variance is green. (Totals all remain in black).

How to change variance to reflect correct good/bad colors

The system automatically recognises increases in revenue as “good” and increases in expenses as “red.”

Preset formulas and metrics are also automated for you.

If you add your own formulas and metrics, you can change the way in which a variance is viewed to control “good” (green), “bad” (red) and “neutral” (black).

You can do this in the formula editor found within the report row or metric.