Excel Sales Forecasting For Dummies

When they first told you that forecasting sales would be part ofyour job, did you feel just the tiniest bit of panic? Did youmomentarily consider consulting the Yellow Pages for listings of"Psychics" or "Tea Leaf Readers"? Well,fear not. Excel Sales Forecasting For Dummies can help youpredict the future without incense or a crystal ball.Excel Sales Forecasting For Dummies shows you how to usethe number one workbook program, Microsoft Excel, to predict trendsand future sales based on something not quite soethereal--numbers. You use data about the past to forecast thefuture. Excel provides all sorts of tools to help you do that, andthis book shows you how to use them.From recognizing why forecasting is a good idea to making senseof exponential smoothing, Excel Sales Forecasting ForDummies has you covered. If you have a basic grasp of how touse Excel, you'll be ready to discover how to* Select and use the right forecasting method for yourbusiness* Choose and arrange data in lists, then manage that data withpivot tables* Filter lists and turn them into charts that illustratewhat's going on* Find relationships in your data* Use Excel's Analysis Toolpak feature to create forecastsautomatically, or venture into advanced forecasts using worksheetfunctions* Gain more control over your forecasting and target specifictypes of predictions* Use moving averages and predict seasonal salesWritten by Conrad Carlberg, a nationally recognized expert onExcel who also has experience in sales and marketing, this friendlyguide gets you up and running quickly and easily. You'll soonbe setting up a baseline you can chart and label, summarizing datawith pivot tables, making forecasts based on regression,understanding correlation, and discovering how smoothing lets usprofit from our mistakes. You'll find your confidence in yourability to make sales predictions has soared right off thechart.

Introduction.Part I: Understanding Sales Forecasting and How Excel CanHelp.Chapter 1: A Forecasting Overview.Chapter 2: Forecasting: The Basic Issues.Chapter 3: Understanding Baselines.Chapter 4: Predicting the Future: Why Forecasting Works.Part II: Organizing the Data.Chapter 5: Choosing Your Data: How to Get a Good Baseline.Chapter 6: Setting Up Lists in Excel.Chapter 7: Working with Lists in Excel.Part III: 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 Analysis ToolPak.Chapter 11: Basing Forecasts on Regression.Part IV: Making Advanced Forecasts.Chapter 12: Entering the Formulas Yourself.Chapter 13: Using Moving Averages.Chapter 14: Evaluating a Moving Average.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 V: The Part of Tens.Chapter 19: Ten Pivot Table Troubles -- and How to OvercomeThem.Chapter 20: The Ten Best Excel Tools.Index.