Calc Guide

that are already signed. For the fourth quarter, however, no definite
income is available. So how much must the company earn in Q4 to
reach its goal? The CFO can enter the projected earnings for each of
the other three quarters along with a formula that totals all four
quarters. Then she runs a goal seek on the empty cell for Q4 sales, and
receives her answer.
Other uses of goal seek may be more complicated, but the method
remains the same. Only one argument can be altered in a single goal
seek.
Goal Seek example
To calculate annual interest (I), create a table with the values for the
capital (C), number of years (n), and interest rate (i). The formula is
I = C*n*i.
Let us assume that the interest rate i of 7.5% and the number of years
n (1) will remain constant. However, you want to know how much the
investment capital C would have to be modified in order to attain a
particular return I. For this example, calculate how much capital C
would be required if you want an annual return of $15,000.
Enter each of the values mentioned above into adjacent cells (for
Capital, C, an arbitrary value like $100,000 or it can be left blank; for
number of years, n, 1; for interest rate, i, 7.5%). Enter the formula to
calculate the interest, I, in another cell. Instead of C, n, and i, use the
reference to the cell with the corresponding value. In our example
(Figure 231), this would be =B1*B2*B3.
1) Place the cursor in the formula cell (B4), and choose Tools >
Goal Seek.
2) In the Goal Seek dialog, the correct cell is already entered in the
Formula cell field.
3) Place the cursor in the Variable cell field. In the sheet, click in the
cell that contains the value to be changed, in this example it is B1.
4) Enter the desired result of the formula in the Target value field. In
this example, the value is 15000. Figure 234 shows the cells and
fields.
Chapter 9 Data Analysis 289