Excel Tips and Tools for Better Budgets and Forecasts

Excel is the de facto budgeting and forecasting tool for most professionals. Yet, many who use Excel for these tasks do not take advantage of numerous built-in tools to help with these tasks. In this session, you will learn how to work with Excel features such as FORECAST and FORECAST.ETS, TREND, Forecast Sheets, XNPV, and XIRR to improve your budgeting and forecasting processes. Additionally, you will learn better ways to manage what-if analysis using Scenario Manager, Solver, and the value of performing Monte Carlo simulations. In short, if you use Excel for budgeting and forecasting, you can’t afford to miss this session!

Learning Objectives:

-List key budgeting and forecasting-centric features in Excel

-Differentiate between Excel’s capital budgeting functions

-Utilize Scenario Manager to manage different sets of budget assumptions

-Solve complex, multi-variable equations with Excel’s Solver add-in

-Create Monte Carlo simulations to model risk in budgets and forecasts