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Should I use TREND or LINEST to forecast sales data?

Kev Das

New Member
Hi

I have 24 months of sales data for 50 territories.

I want to forecast data for each territory for the next 12 months.

The sales data can go up and down each month (20% either way) but generally the sales are increasing on all territories.

Please could somebody:
a) In simple terms explain the difference between TREND and LINEST functions
b) Advise as to which function should give the most accurate forecast.

Many thanks for any support

Kev
 
Thanks Oldchippy - I have read this but unfortunately it didn't really answer my question.

Thank you too SirJB7 - not sure I totally understand the difference though! Will they always give the same trend or could they differ?
 
You want to forecast your sales data. Sales is related to market demand, supply of material/product, margin, cost etc. anyway, you can solve your problem by statistical function regression. In Excel, you can solve regression using =FORECAST() Function.
 
Many thanks Hui and Mazmul

I appreciate that you are more likely to achieve a better forecast taking into account more than just trending but I need to regularly update a forecast for 50 territories in a short amount of time so, for that, I need a formula!

It seems that I get the same result with TREND, LINEST and FORECAST. I am sure they have their own uses but for this task I think I could use any of them.

Thanks again

Best Wishes

Kev
 
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