Excel Sales Forecasting For Dummies, 2nd Edition

Choose, manage, and present data

Select the right forecasting method for your business

Use moving averages and predict seasonal sales

Create sales forecasts you can trust

You don’t need magic, luck, or an advanced math degree to develop reliable sales forecasts; you just need Excel and this book! This guide explains how forecasting works and how to use the tools built into Excel. You’ll learn how to choose your data, set up tables, chart your baseline, to create both basic and advanced forecasts you can really use.

Inside…

• Prevent common issues
• Why baselines matter
• How to organize your data
• Tips on setting up tables
• Working with pivot charts
• How to forecast seasonal sales revenue
• Forecasting with regression

Table of Contents

Part 1 Understanding Sales Forecasting and How Excel Can Help
Chapter 1 A Forecasting Overview
Chapter 2 Forecasting: The Basic Issues
Chapter 3 Understanding Baselines
Chapter 4 Predicting the Future: Why Forecasting Works

Part 2 Organizing the Data
Chapter 5 Choosing Your Data: How to Get a Good Baseline
Chapter 6 Setting Up Tables in Excel
Chapter 7 Working with Tables in Excel

Part 3 Making a Basic Forecast
Chapter 8 Summarizing Sales Data with Pivot Tables
Chapter 9 Charting Your Baseline: It’s a Good Idea
Chapter 10 Forecasting with Excel’s Data Analysis Add-in
Chapter 11 Basing Forecasts on Regression

Part 4 Making Advanced Forecasts
Chapter 12 Entering the Formulas Yourself
Chapter 13 Using Moving Averages
Chapter 14 Changing Horses: From Moving Averages to Smoothing
Chapter 15 Smoothing: How You Profit from Your Mistakes
Chapter 16 Fine-Tuning a Regression Forecast
Chapter 17 Managing Trends
Chapter 18 Same Time Last Year: Forecasting Seasonal Sales

Part 5 The Part of Tens
Chapter 19 Ten Fun Facts to Know and Tell about Array Formulas
Chapter 20 The Ten Best Excel Tools