
The Excel Solver function is located on the Data Ribbon and the keyboard shortcut on Windows is Alt, A, Y21. Step 3: Use the Ribbon to Launch Excel Solver Learn with video instruction in CFI’s Advanced Excel Course. The point of this model is to show an example that can’t easily be calculated using Goal Seek or some other solution. Imagine a very niche market that only has a certain number of customers.Īs you add more salespeople initially, you generate a lot more revenue, but at some point, additional salespeople run out of new people to prospect and they become dead weight for the company. This is because as more salespeople are added, the less effective overall they become. Here, we’ve created an example where there is a non-linear relationship between the number of salespeople in a company and its profit. When the dialogue box appears, make sure the box is ticked, as shown below. To do this, go to File -> Options -> Add-Ins -> Manage Excel Add-Ins. The first step is to make sure you have Solver installed in your Excel file.


Step 1: Ensure the Solver Add-In is Installed Put another way, we want to figure out how many salespeople we should hire to get the maximum amount of profit.

There is a diminishing return on salespeople, so we want to figure out what the optimal number of people to hire is. The best example of how to use Excel solver is by graphing a situation where there is a non-linear relationship between, for example, the number of salespeople in a company and the profit that they generate. It is a type of what-if analysis and is particularly useful when trying to determine the “best” outcome, given a set of more than two assumptions. Excel Solver is an optimization tool that can be used to determine how the desired outcome can be achieved by changing the assumptions in a model.
