Modeling Profitability and Making Forecasts in Excel (Video) (Course Id 2544)

Learn to model profitability and make forecasts in Excel, empowering you to make data-driven decisions for your business. This course delves into key Excel functionalities that give you the tools to analyze past data, build robust financial models, and project future profitability outcomes.

• Workbook Design Fundamentals: Lay the foundation for effective model building by understanding key principles of worksheet model design to reduce errors.
• Data Tables: Explore the power of data tables for sensitivity analysis. Master the creation of both one-way and two-way data tables, and learn to identify breakeven points and lines.
• Goal Seek and Solver: Discover the efficiency of Goal Seek and Solver for optimizing your profitability scenarios. Learn how to find breakeven sales volumes, maximize profit by adjusting production levels, and make informed choices between investment options.
• Scenario Manager: Enhance your modeling by utilizing Scenario Manager, enabling you to create and compare different scenarios with varying assumptions. Explore the utility of the Scenario Summary Report to analyze the impact of these scenarios on your financial outcomes.
• Statistical Analysis: Explore how Excel’s statistical functions can help you understand your data better. Learn about correlation analysis, normal distribution, and percentile calculations to gain deeper insights from your data.
• Analysis ToolPak: Enhance your analytical capabilities with the Analysis ToolPak. Discover its features for descriptive statistics, regression analysis, and smoothing techniques like moving averages and exponential smoothing.
• Forecast Sheet: Unlock the power of Excel's Forecast Sheet functionality to make predictions based on historical data. Learn how to create forecasts with confidence intervals.

This course focuses on ways Excel facilitates profitability analysis and forecasting. You can explore profitability and forecasting concepts in more detail in my other courses.

Video - NASBA QAS - Text - NASBA Registry - 2544

Course Learning Objectives

• Recall Excel functions for performing profitability analysis.
• Recognize functionality in Excel that can be used for profitability analysis.
• Identify ways to make forecasts in Excel.
• Each objective should begin with one of the following:
  o Identify
  o Recognize
  o Recall

Chapter 1 - Modeling Profitability and Making Forecasts in Excel

Chapter 1 Review Questions

Glossary