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Excel/Excel 2007 Trending or forecasting
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Question
I need to find the trend/forecast of monthly figures starting with April this year & ending with March the following year. For example: Apr 09 - 2356, May 09 - 445, June 09 - 4468. I need to be able to show, based upon Apr through June, what the next months nimbers might be. Later on I will add July's figures & want the remaining months to calculate accurately. Thoughts on which is best - TRENDING or FORECASTING?
Answer
Mike Trapp,
Trend and Forecast worksheet functions use the same algorithm (least squares). Forecast will give you the estimate for the next month.
Trend can do more than the next month, but since you only need the next month, you can use Forecast.
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Regards,
Tom Ogilvy
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Tom Ogilvy
Expertise
Worked with the program for many years - provided assistance on MS Excel Newsgroups since 1997. Have received the Microsoft MVP award annually since 1999. I don't answer questions on using Excel in a browser Since I have no way to test this. Prefer not to answer charting questions. I consider myself to be particularly knowledgeable about using VBA internal to Excel but have no problems with formulas and pivot tables either.
Experience
Have Used Excel for 15 - 20 years. Answered in excess of 70,000 Excel related questions in MS Excel newsgroups. Unless obvious, please specify whether you want a worksheet function or macro/VBA solution.
Education/Credentials
BS General Engineering (concentration in Industrial Engineering)
MS Operations Research Systems Analysis
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