Say that you have a model set up to perform a calculation. You need to figure out how to adjust one input value to get to a certain answer. The Goal Seek command can simplify this process.
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Excel In Depth chapter 26 - Goal Seek!
Hey, welcome back to the MrExcel netcast, I'm Bill Jelen.
While we're working through the Excel In Depth chapter 26, talking about some What-if tools.
I have a simple little model here where I can figure out the price of a car, want to pay for over 60 months, 5.25% interest rate, and what the monthly payment would be, let's see, this uses the PMT function.
We're not here to talk about the PMT function, I'm trying to get this car, but my problem is my budget only handles 425$, and so I can start to try and find the price of the car that it will yield $425.
Just using brute force I can, for example, plug in 20000, and that's too low, so maybe then try 22500, a little bit too high, just keep going back and forth and back and forth.
But there's a much, much faster way to go.
Anytime you have a model like this, where you have input cells that lead to a final value, we can have Excel find the right input value to lead to a correct answer.
So it's back here on the Data tab, under the What-if drop-down, something called Goal Seek.
So we want to Set cell B5 to $425 By changing cell B1.
So that's how goal seek works, when I click OK, it starts honing in on value, it'll do it in less than a second, BAM, it's done!
Alright so 22384.93, click OK to accept that, and we've now backed into it.
Now, notice they did not change the formula at all, the formula's still there, the model's still intact, we can still continue to play What-if Analysis.
But it finds the right input cell to lead to that output cell very, very quickly, a great tool back here on the Data tab, (unclear) Goal Seek.
Well hey, I want to thank you for stopping by, we'll see you next time for another netcast from MrExcel!
Excel In Depth chapter 26 - Goal Seek!
Hey, welcome back to the MrExcel netcast, I'm Bill Jelen.
While we're working through the Excel In Depth chapter 26, talking about some What-if tools.
I have a simple little model here where I can figure out the price of a car, want to pay for over 60 months, 5.25% interest rate, and what the monthly payment would be, let's see, this uses the PMT function.
We're not here to talk about the PMT function, I'm trying to get this car, but my problem is my budget only handles 425$, and so I can start to try and find the price of the car that it will yield $425.
Just using brute force I can, for example, plug in 20000, and that's too low, so maybe then try 22500, a little bit too high, just keep going back and forth and back and forth.
But there's a much, much faster way to go.
Anytime you have a model like this, where you have input cells that lead to a final value, we can have Excel find the right input value to lead to a correct answer.
So it's back here on the Data tab, under the What-if drop-down, something called Goal Seek.
So we want to Set cell B5 to $425 By changing cell B1.
So that's how goal seek works, when I click OK, it starts honing in on value, it'll do it in less than a second, BAM, it's done!
Alright so 22384.93, click OK to accept that, and we've now backed into it.
Now, notice they did not change the formula at all, the formula's still there, the model's still intact, we can still continue to play What-if Analysis.
But it finds the right input cell to lead to that output cell very, very quickly, a great tool back here on the Data tab, (unclear) Goal Seek.
Well hey, I want to thank you for stopping by, we'll see you next time for another netcast from MrExcel!
