Remarks

• The Scenario PivotTable Report option on the Scenario Summary dialog box presents the scenario results in a PivotTable format.

• Suppose we select a scenario in the Scenario Manager dialog box and then click the Show button. The input cells’ values for the selected scenario then appear in the worksheet, and Excel recalculates all formulas. This tool is great for presenting a “slide show” of your scenarios.

• It’s hard to create a lot of scenarios with the Scenario Manager because you need to input each individual scenario’s values. Monte Carlo simulation (see Chapter 60, “Introduction to Monte Carlo Simulation”) makes it easy to create many scenarios. Using the Monte Carlo simulation method, you can find information such as the probability that the NPV of a project’s cash flows is nonnegative-an important measure because it is the probability that the project adds value to the company.

• Clicking the minus (–) sign in row 5 of the Scenario Summary report will hide the Assumption cells and show only results. Clicking the plus (+) sign will restore the full report.

• Suppose you send a file to several people and each adds their own scenarios. After each person returns the file containing his or her created scenarios to you, you can merge all the scenarios into one workbook by opening each person’s version of the workbook. Then click the Merge button in the Scenario Manager dialog box in the original workbook and select the workbooks containing the scenarios you want to merge. Excel will merge all the selected scenarios in the original workbook.