Excel Sales Forecasting for Dummies

If you are new to forecasting and want to learn forecasting in a breeze, this is the book for you. If you like to use excel spreadsheets and want to play with data, this book gets you started in the right path. The book teaches you 3 types of forecasting techniques ( moving average, exponential smoothing and regression forecasts) and explains how to use excel functions to use these techniques. In fact I have used the concepts like exponential smoothing and regression analysis on spreadsheets based on the book at work and at school. You will like this book if 1. You are new to forecasting and want to learn in less than 24 hrs. 2. Like using excel formula functions. 3. Like to analyze statistical data 4. Want to develop simple to use forecasting models for your work or for your school project.

I read the book from cover to cover and was thoroughly enlightened. From a content perspective, the book is first rate. Carlberg not only explains how to forecast, but he also clarifies the pros and cons of the various methods, explains how to reduce forecasting error, and offers excellent insight into regression and the other statistics involved in making and evaluating a forecast. Carlberg also masterfully integrates theory with practice by clearly explaining how to best utilize Excel for forecasting. I consider myself a very advanced user of Excel, but nevertheless benefited from Carlberg's sophisticated understanding of Excel. He provides an excellent overview of the pros, cons, and pitfalls of using the Analysis Toolpak vs. spreadsheet modeling, and offers a number of arcane Excel tips that I haven't found elsewhere. For example, despite years of Excel experience, I never understood (or, more accurately, noticed) the difference between a `Category Axis' and a `Value Axis' in an Excel chart. I almost gave Excel Sales Forecasting four stars, for one important reason: The book was poorly organized. The main topics in the book - moving averages, exponential smoothing, and regression - were broken up into too many pieces, such that each topic was covered multiple times with a lot of unnecessary repetition. I realize this is, to some extent, the nature of Dummies books, which are not necessarily meant to be read cover-to-cover. But as a result, I often found myself needlessly re-reading material several times and, conversely, often had to flip back several chapters because I had forgotten some of the nuances of one of the methods by the time I got to a more advanced section. Having just finished the book, I still feel like I need to review it one more time, by topic, to put all the `pieces' back together in my mind. With the exception of the final rant above, the book is outstanding and provides an insightful introduction to someone like myself who knew nothing of forecasting. I'm not one to normally quote old sayings, but this book brought to mind the Chinese (Confucius) proverb: "I hear, I forget. I see, I remember. I do, I understand." Learning forecasting via Excel helped strengthen my understanding. The author and Wiley (the publisher) deserve a lot of credit for producing this unique and valuable book.

If "For Dummies" means, clear, comprehensible, well illustrated, and fun to read to boot, then "Excel Sales Forecasting for Dummies" is true to its name. When you put together a guide to one of the most powerful and useful pieces of software in any company's arsenal with the genius of Conrad Carlberg to lead even the neophyte through the intracacies of sales forecasting, the combination is downright unbeatable. Carlberg has won awards for a string of some of the best "how-to" books on EXCEL and Microsoft Office. This new one gets my personal award for "best EXCEL guide of the year."

I know that Dummies books are supposed to be easygoing and offer a lighter tone than most, so I was surprised to see this topic getting the Dummies treatment. I'm glad to report that it works. Excel Sales Forecasting is very reader-friendly, and it demystifies intimidating concepts like "exponential smoothing" and "mutiple regression." I've done a lot of numeric analysis but not much forecasting, mainly because the available texts are so dense and inpenetrable. No more! This book provides the material I need to understand, clearly and with useful detail and examples. It covers the basics and also dips into some more advanced topics. It considers not just the number crunching aspects, but also the business context that you're forecasting into. And it's fun to read! We dummies have a secret: we're smart enough to get books written for us that don't make our eyes glaze over. This one makes the grade.