Business numeracy: percentages, rates, margins and unit conversions
For anyone who reads or produces figures at work, such as reports, quotes, stock counts, KPIs and supplier prices, and wants to get the arithmetic right every time. No prerequisites beyond basic arithmetic and a calculator or spreadsheet. You calculate percentages, percent change and percentage points, reverse a discount, compare sites fairly with rates and weighted averages, work out gross margin, markup and operating margin, and convert units with exact factors while rounding only at the end. Definitions follow national statistics offices, the US SEC and NIST. Your company's reporting conventions decide rounding and which margin figures are reported.
- Level
- Beginner
- Length
- About 75 minutes
- Contents
- 4 lessons · final exam
- Status
- Published · updated 10 Oct 2026
Skills you'll practise
- Calculate percentages, percent change and percentage-point differences, including reversing a percentage discount or increase
- Calculate rates and averages that compare fairly across groups of different sizes
- Calculate gross margin, markup and operating margin from revenue and cost figures and tell them apart
- Convert units with exact conversion factors and unit cancellation, rounding only the final result
Course outline
- 1.Calculate percentages and percent changeLesson · 15 min
- 2.Calculate rates and averages that compare fairlyLesson · 12 min
- 3.Calculate margins and markupLesson · 12 min
- 4.Convert units without rounding errorsLesson · 12 min
- 5.Business numeracy: percentages, rates, margins and unit conversions: knowledge checkKnowledge check · 16 questions
- 6.Business numeracy: percentages, rates, margins and unit conversions: practical exerciseKnowledge check · 1 question
- 7.Final exam8 questions · passing it completes the course, so people who already know the material can test out
Sources it draws on
The lessons and questions are written from these references, so learners can go back to the original.
- Australian Bureau of Statistics: Describing frequencies (ratio, rate, proportion, percentage)
- Australian Bureau of Statistics: Statistical terms and concepts glossary
- Australian Bureau of Statistics: Measures of central tendency
- US Bureau of Labor Statistics: Consumer Price Index Frequently Asked Questions (index points and percent change)
- US SEC: Beginners' Guide to Financial Statements
- NIST: Unit Conversion
- NIST Guide to the SI (SP 811), Appendix B.9: Factors for units listed by kind of quantity
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