My favorite function of Excel is “Goal Seek”. Let’s say you’re developing a budget that can’t exceed $100,000.  One line item is flexible, while the rest are not.  All the budget items are interdependent on each other.  You need to adjust that one item (“supplies”, for instance) until everything totals $100,000.

You could plug in one number after another to see how it affects the bottom line.  With a large spreadsheet you will be 1) losing precious time, 2) jumping all over the screen and 3) increasing your chances of error.

First, make sure the “supplies” item is a value rather than a formula.  Any value, really, because this number will change like magic.   Then go to “Tools” and select “Goal Seek”.

Select the cell that is the bottom line for your budget.   Enter your target figure ($100,000), and then plug in the cell containing your “supplies” value.  Excel will figure out what the supplies category needs to be in order to obtain $100,000 for the bottom line…saving you time and aggravation.

Do you have Excel secrets you’d like to share?