Scenario analysis enables you to
forecast hypothetical scenarios by specifying the future values for one or more underlying
factors that contribute to the forecast.
For example, if you forecast the profit of a company, and material cost is an underlying
factor, then you might
use
scenario analysis to determine how the forecasted profit would change if the material cost increased
by 10%.
In addition to scenario analysis, you can perform
goal seeking. Goal seeking enables you to specify a
target value for your
forecast measure, and then determine the values of your underlying factors that would be required
to achieve the target value.
For example, if you forecast the profit of a company, and material cost is an underlying
factor, then you might
use goal seeking to determine what value for material cost would be required to achieve
a 10% increase
in profit.
Scenario analysis and goal seeking can be used together in the same forecast.