How to calculate Budget Variance conditionally?

[cartergardner]

Hi all, 

I have been building an income statement within powerbi, but I have run in trouble when adding a budget variance column.

I want to structure my variance measure to where if it's a positive variance then it's favorable and a negative variance it's unfavorable. I have included some sample data below.  

You will see that the variance calculation works for the revenue line (actuals were less than budget so I want to show negative), but the signs are flipped for all of the expense categories, obviously. 

Is there a way to add a condition within the variance measure to say "if it's revenue, then do $ Act - $ Bud, if not then $ Bud - $Act?

[jgeddes · Accepted solution]

The short answer is yes, there are many ways to do what you are asking. The actual solution that works for you will depend on how your data is organized. 
A quick example of how it could work;
If your line items have a coresponding column that determines revenue or expense (or are related to a column). You would then be able to use that column in a variance measure.

If I have the line items and coresponding account type

I can then write a variance measure like

That would give me a result like

Hope this gets you going in the right direction.