3.6 What-if analysis and simple modelling
You can answer 'what would it take' rather than only 'what is'.
Before:02. Excel — Formulas & FunctionsUnlocks:05. Excel — Charts & Dashboards
What-if analysis turns a model around: instead of asking what the result is, you ask what the inputs would have to be. Goal Seek inverts one formula, data tables sweep one or two variables across ranges, Scenario Manager stores named sets of assumptions, and Solver handles a constrained optimisation. It sits late in the analysis module because it assumes a model with clean inputs and honest formulas. The common confusion is between Goal Seek, which changes one cell once, and Solver, which juggles several under constraints; reaching for the big tool first usually wastes time.
Work through these
Goal Seek
Working backwards from the answer you want to the input that produces it. It is a single command and it removes a great deal of manual trial and error.
Data tables: one and two variable
A grid showing how a result changes as one or two inputs vary across a range of values. This is how a model becomes a set of options rather than one number.
Scenario Manager
Saving several complete sets of input values and switching between them by name. It is the right tool when the story is best case, likely case and worst case.
Solver for a constrained optimisation, briefly
Optimising with constraints, covered briefly here because it is a specialist tool. Knowing it exists is enough until you meet a problem that needs it.
Practice file
- xl-07-dashboard-starter.xlsx
Clean data plus an empty dashboard sheet with the five questions written on it.
Opens in Excel. Every name, number and address in these files is made up. No account needed to download.
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Links last checked 29 Aug 2026.
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