How to Fix Goal Seek in Excel
Sometimes, Goal Seek can face challenges finding a solution, often because one may not exist. In such cases, Excel will provide its best estimate and let you know with a message like “Goal Seeking may not have found a solution.” If you’re confident that a solution should be attainable for your formula, consider these simple troubleshooting steps:
Step 1: Confirm Goal Seek Settings
- Make sure the “Set cell” points to the cell with your formula.
- Check if the formula cell depends on the “changing cell,” either directly or indirectly.
Step 2: Adjust Iteration Settings
- Navigate to the File Tab
- Click on Options
- Select Formulas and Change the below options
- Increase “Maximum Iterations” to explore more potential solutions.
- Decrease “Maximum Change” for greater precision, especially if your formula requires it.
Step 3: No Circular References
- Ensure that your formulas don’t create circular references, as Goal Seek and Excel formulas work best when they’re not interdependent.
- These steps should help resolve issues when using Excel’s Goal Seek tool for What-If analysis.
How to use Goal Seek in Excel for What-If analysis with Examples
Goal Seek is a “What if – analysis” tool available in MS EXCEL to determine or calculate any input value based on the formula and the output/resultant value. In simple language, we can say, “What should be the input value of the given output”? The good thing about Goal Seek is that it performs all calculations behind the scenes. You are only asked to give these three parameters Set cell, To value, By changing cell.
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