How to Get Gross Margin in Excel. Gross margin constitutes the percent of sales that is applied to profit. As an example, if you had a 50 percent gross margin, half of the sale is profit; the ...

Profit margins vary by industry and should only be compared to those of similar companies. You can use computer software, such as Microsoft Excel, to quickly calculate profit margins.

Secondly, you can apply a percentage markup to your cost to calculate the maximum sales price. As a third option, you can use margin. Unlike markup, margin is based on the sales price, not the cost.

Calculating the return One of the best methods for calculating an average return for a stock investment is the XIRR function in Excel.