Microsoft Excel: Using What-If Analysis-When, Why, and How

Why Should You Attend:

In this presentation, instructor will discuss the What-If Analysis tools available within Microsoft Excel’s Data menu. You’ll learn how and when to make use of Excel’s Scenario Manager as well as how to use the Data Table feature to compare calculation results based on two or three inputs. David explains how Excel’s Goal Seek feature empowers you to perform basic what-if analyses, in effect, solving for a single value.

Learn how to enable Excel’s Solver feature and replicate the Goal Seek functionality within Solver.

However, you’ll leave this presentation with an understanding of Excel’s what-if capabilities, and you’ll spend far less time performing trial-and-error inputs once you master these features.

Instructor will share detailed handouts, with numbered steps, serve as reference material you can utilize going forward. He also provides an Excel workbook that includes a majority of the examples he uses to demonstrate techniques during the presentation.

Learning Objectives:

• Identify when to use Excel’s Goal Seek feature versus Solver.
• Recall how to use the Data Table feature to compare calculation results based on varying inputs.
• Define how to make one workbook serve multiple purposes by way of Excel’s Scenario Manager.
• Apply the FORECAST function in Excel 2016.
• Recall how to use the Summary Report aspect of Scenario Manager to compare different scenarios.

Areas Covered in the Webinar:

• Avoid writing repetitive formulas with Excel’s Data Table feature.
• Consider one approach for working around the 32-input limit built into Scenario Manager.
• Explore Excel’s Scenario Manager feature that enables you to store various sets of inputs, such as best case, worst case, and most likely, but without having to replicate worksheets or workbooks.
• Gain an understanding of Excel’s Goal Seek feature, which is useful in simplifying what-if analyses.
• Get a basic introduction to Excel’s Solver feature.
• Merge scenarios from other workbooks into your present workbook.
• See how to enable Excel’s Solver Add-in for more complex what-if analyses.
• See how to save Solver results to Excel’s Scenario Manager for reuse.
• Use the FORECAST function in Excel 2016 to extrapolate trends based on existing data in your spreadsheets.
• Use the Summary Report aspect of Scenario Manager to compare different scenarios side by side.

Who Will Benefit:

• CPAs and Accountants
• Marketing and Management Consultants
• Bankers
• CFOs
• Controllers
• Financial Planners and Consultants
• Business Professionals
• Business Analysts
• Bookkeepers
• Human Resources Staff

David H Ringstrom
Owner, Accounting Advisors, Inc

Acclaimed Microsoft Excel expert David H. Ringstrom, CPA, is the president and owner of Accounting Advisors, Inc. based in Atlanta, Georgia. Mr. Ringstrom’s Excel courses cover the gamut of the software’s features and functions to provide CPAs as well as accounting and financial professionals the knowledge they need to work more efficiently and effectively in Excel. His comprehensive yet easy-to-understand presentations cover Excel 2016, 2013, 2010, and 2007. He is the coauthor of Idiot’s Guides: Introductory Accounting, published in February 2016; the technical editor of over 34 books; and the published author of numerous Excel articles.

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