MS Excel: What If Analysis
- 1. EXCEL: EFFECTIVE DECISION MAKING TOOLS (What-If Analysis) www.virtualcha.com
- 3. It is the process of changing the values in cells
- 4. to see how those changes affect the outcome
- 5. of formulas on the worksheet.
- 6. In relation to this, you need to create scenarios to analyze.
- 8. A scenario is a set of values that Microsoft Excel saves
- 9. and can substitute automatically in the worksheet.
- 11. Because you can use scenarios to forecast
- 12. the outcome of a worksheet model.
- 13. Rationale
- 14. What can you do by using WHAT-IF SCENARIOS?
- 15. You can use several different set of values in one or
- 16. more formulas to explore various results
- 17. HERE’s a very simple exercise
- 19. But before we start creating What-If Scenarios
- 20. we have to create a formula for the budgets
- 21. highlight ALL cells and in the active cell up in the corner,
- 23. =B4 X Net Sales
- 24. lock it by hitting F4 twice
- 26. Take a look at this scenario
- 28. and we will learn how to create them
- 29. we defined the first scenario in the table above
- 30. that we used in the formula for the first scenario
- 31. However, in the other scenario we will create our own
- 32. Excel will use the same formula in those scenarios
- 33. and populate the values for us
- 39. A pop up will appear, click the “ADD” button
- 41. It will then, ask you to provide few inputs such as:
- 42. “SCENARIO NAME”
- 45. and if required add comments
- 46. and click “OK”
- 48. Take NOTE!
- 50. clicking “OK” and then CLOSE
- 51. and your first scenario is created
- 53. Remember the steps stated above
- 54. Because we are going to create
- 56. Once again, go to “DATA RIBBON”
- 60. As you can see, the first scenario you have created
- 63. Now, Let’s create the second scenario
- 65. Click “ADD”
- 66. see the range we have defined earlier?
- 67. This is the range we have provided earlier
- 68. Excel assumed that we are going to use it again,
- 69. which is fine
- 70. Type SCENARIO 2
- 71. Provide scenario no. 2 and click “OK”
- 72. There are two (2) options in Scenario 2
- 73. You have two option for this
- 74. 1. Change the value here or
- 75. simply click “OK” and save it
- 76. 2. You can now define values and
- 79. You can create as many scenarios
- 80. as needed for you to analyze your data
- 82. The quickest way to display the values
- 84. is by customizing the axis tool bar
- 85. this will allow you to select scenario
- 86. and Excel will populate the values for you
- 87. using the formula we have defined earlier
- 89. Here are the steps to customize the axis tool bar:
- 90. Step 1: GO TO FILE AND CLICK LEFT CLICK
- 92. Step 3: GO TO “QUICK ACCESS TOOLBAR”
- 96. GO TO “SCENARIO”
- 98. AND THE SCENARIO ICON WILL APPEAR ON YOUR DEFAULT LIST
- 100. Step 5: THIS “SCENARIO” ICON SHOULD APPEAR
- 102. Thank You!