How to Create a Forecast Chart in Excel 2016

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Excel 2016 added a useful new feature: One-click forecasting to help you understand current trends and predict future ones. Here's how it works.

First you'll need a table containing a series of dates or times and values associated with those dates. For example, weekly stock prices or monthly sales data. Excel will use these values to create a new worksheet with a forecast chart.

  1. Select any cell in one of your series. Excel will automatically select the rest of the data for you in the next step.
  2. Go to the Data tab and click Forecast Sheet.

  1. (Optional) Adjust the forecast end date in the forecast worksheet preview.

  1. (Optional) Click the Options menu and adjust the forecasting options.

  1. Click Create.

In a few moments, you'll find a new sheet in your workbook containing the forecast chart based on your historical data. In that sheet, Excel will also create a tablet containing the historical and predicted values, which you can modify if you'd like to adjust the forecast.

Melanie Pinola