Excel Video 101 helps you add a forecast to your chart. Adding the forecast is easy. Figuring out what Excel’s forecast and how Excel calculates that forecast is a little more work.
Excel Video 101 is a little longer than the average video because I give you some brief examples of when you might want to use forecasting in a medical practice. You’ll also recognize several principles of forecasting, such as near-term forecasts are more accurate than longer-term forecasts, forecasting months or years (bigger time periods) is more accurate than forecasting days (smaller time periods), and forecasting a group or category like new patient visits will be more accurate than forecasting components of the group, like 99203.
I’ll cover three different approaches to calculating a forecast in Excel. In this video, we’ll review the FORECAST function. We’ll worry about calculating slope, y-intercepts, r-squared values, and the TREND function next.
While you’re watching, be sure to notice the Function Arguments window. I’ll demonstrate it with the FORECAST function, but you can open the Function Arguments window to get more information on any Excel function. The Function Arguments window helps to make hairy Excel functions a little less complicated.
I hope you find these videos helpful. Thanks for watching.
