Skip to main content

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.
Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

20 Time Intelligence Dax Measures

20 Time Intelligence DAX measures in Power BI with examples: Year-to-Date Sales: css Copy code YTD Sales = TOTALYTD( [Total Sales] , Calendar [Date] ) Month-to-Date Sales: css Copy code MTD Sales = TOTALMTD( [Total Sales] , Calendar [Date] ) Quarter-to-Date Sales: css Copy code QTD Sales = TOTALQTD( [Total Sales] , Calendar [Date] ) Previous Year Sales: mathematica Copy code Previous Year Sales = CALCULATE ( [ Total Sales ] , SAMEPERIODLASTYEAR ( Calendar [ Date ] ) ) Year-over-Year Growth: css Copy code YoY Growth = DIVIDE( [Total Sales] - [Previous Year Sales] , [Previous Year Sales] ) Rolling 3-Month Average Sales: sql Copy code 3 M Rolling Avg Sales = AVERAGEX(DATESINPERIOD(Calendar[ Date ], MAX (Calendar[ Date ]), -3 , MONTH ), [Total Sales]) Cumulative Sales: scss Copy code Cumulative Sales = SUMX (FILTER(ALL(Calendar), Calendar [Date] <= MAX (Calendar[Date])), [Total Sales] ) Running Total Sales: scss Copy code Running Total Sales = SUMX (FILTER(ALL(Calendar), Calen...
Post a Comment
Read more

40 Power Query Editor features in Power BI

40 Power Query Editor features in Power BI along with examples: 1. Filter Rows: Remove rows based on conditions. Example: Remove rows with a null value in the "CustomerName" column. 2. Remove Duplicates: Eliminate duplicate rows. Example: Remove duplicate entries based on the "OrderID" column. 3. Sort Rows: Arrange rows in ascending or descending order. Example: Sort data by "Date" column in descending order. 4. Replace Values: Substitute one value with another. Example: Replace "N/A" with "Unknown" in the "Status" column. 5. Split Columns: Divide a column into multiple columns. Example: Split "FullName" into "FirstName" and "LastName." 6. Merge Queries: Combine data from multiple sources. Example: Merge customer and order data based on the "CustomerID." 7. Group By: Aggregate data based on a specific column. Example: Group sales data by "ProductCategory" and calculate the sum ...
Post a Comment
Read more