Explanation

The Forecast End Date determines how far into the future Excel generates predictions.

For example:

Historical data:

Jan 2025 – Dec 2026

Forecast End Date:

Jun 2027

Excel forecasts:

Jan 2027 – Jun 2027

Confidence Interval

A forecast includes a range around the predicted value.

This helps show uncertainty around the forecast.

Example:

Month	Forecast	Lower Bound	Upper Bound
Jan-27	65,000	58,000	72,000
Feb-27	68,000	60,000	76,000

The actual future value may differ from the forecast.

Practice

Create a six-month forecast and examine the upper and lower boundaries.