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Goal Seek feature in Excel


Have you ever found yourself plugging in successively higher and lower values into an input cell, hoping to arrive at a certain answer?


A tool that is built in to Excel does exactly this set of steps. Select the cell with the Payment formula. On the Data tab, in the Data Tools group, look for the What-If Analysis dropdown and choose Goal Seek….

A simple model calculates a loan payment. Choose the payment cell.
Under What-If Analysis, choose Goal Seek.

The figure below shows how you can try to set the payment in B5 to $425 by changing cell B1

In the Goal Seek dialog, Set Cell B5 to $425 by changing cell B1.

Goal Seek finds the correct answer within a second.

Excel quickly finds that you can get to a $425 car payment if you can get to a $22,384.9 car price.

Note that the formula in B5 stays intact. The only thing that changes is the input value typed in B1.

Also, with Goal Seek, you are free to experiment with changing other input cells. You can still get the $425 loan payment and the $25,995 car if your banker will offer you a 71.3379-month loan!

You can Goal Seek based on other cells. Set the Payment to $425 by changing the term and you need a 71.3379 month loan.
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