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  3. Compare and Analyze Scenarios (Scenario Analysis)

Compare and Analyze Scenarios (Scenario Analysis)

Compare scenarios, create forecasts and update budget vs actual in real time during meetings or presentations, turning it into a truly collaborative experience.

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Creating, Updating and Managing Scenarios

Default State of the Spreadsheet

When you start working on your spreadsheet, you will see that there is no scenario selected by default. In other words, you will see the Default values of the spreadsheet:

Creating a Scenario by using Scenario Recording Mode

If you need to change multiple cells and group them automatically into a scenario, activate a recording session and edit cells. Click on the Record Scenario button (R) next to the Scenarios button:

This will open the scenario recording panel. Visyond will offer you several options for recording a new scenario:

  • Branch from Selected – this will create a copy of the currently active scenario, which then can be changed and updated.
  • Extend Selected Scenario – this will not create a copy of any scenario but instead will let you update and expand the active scenario.
  • Branch from Base – this will create a new scenario based on the Default values of the spreadsheet.

In this mode, you can modify the cells, and the new values will be automatically added to your scenario (do not worry, you will not overwrite or delete any of the existing cell values). Press Save when you have finished editing.

You will be able to rename cases (cell values) and scenarios you have finished recording the scenario. To rename and adjust scenarios, open the Scenario Management panel:

Note the drop-down icons appearing for cells that have multiple values. You can click on it to see and switch between the cell values:

You don’t have to worry about collaborators overwriting/deleting the values or scenarios created by other people or breaking formulas. One of the core Visyond’s principles is that nobody can’t accidentally or on purpose change other people’s work. See this article to lean more about how Visyond stores multiple assumptions in the same cell without overwriting.

Creating a Scenario by Capturing the Spreadsheet State

After you and your collaborators have added multiple cases (assumptions) in cells, you can assign them to a scenario.

To do this, click on the Scenarios button, add a name for your scenario and click the Create button:

Visyond will create the scenario that will use the currently selected spreadsheet values (a snapshot). The name of the current active scenario will be displayed on top of the grid. There you can also switch between different scenarios:

Also the charts will display the scenario name under the title so that you will not be wondering under which assumptions you took that printout:

You can switch cases one at a time for each cell from the cases panel, or you can switch scenarios and observe how all the cases that are part of that scenario are set to the right value, making it a breeze to watch charts changing as scenarios are changed.

Combining Multiple Scenarios

You can also create new scenarios by combining two or more of existing scenarios.

For example, let’s assume that:

  • Richard created a scenario that drives revenue assumptions
  • Rachel created a scenario that drives cost assumptions
  • Your believe that a realistic scenario is when Richard’s and Rachel’s scenarios are simultaneously active.

In the Scenario panel:

  1. Click on the drop-down and select Richard’s Scenario and Rachel’s Scenario
  2. Click on Combine button

The new scenario name will be an automatic concatenation (you can edit it) of the ones combined (e.g., “Richard’s Scenario & Rachel’s Scenario“).

Comparing Scenarios from the Scenario Drop-down and Panel

Click on the scenario drop-down to select scenarios and see changes in spreadsheets and charts or use Scenario Management panel:

Switch Assumptions (cases) in the Cells Driven by a Scenario

In the Scenario Management panel, click on the “arrow” icon next to a scenario’s name to expand the list of cells that are driven by the scenario.

You can change the case via the drop-down or unlink the cell so that switching back to that scenario would have no effect on the cell.

Reset Scenarios

If you want to reset all the cells in the spreadsheet to their Default case, click on the button Reset Scenario inside the Scenario Management panel or in the Scenario drop-down:

Running Scenario Analysis and Comparing Scenarios

Scenario analysis shows how an output varies when input cells are driven by certain scenarios.

Going to the Analyze tab, and then to Scenarios tab, you can compare scenarios side by side, automatically generating a chart and a variance table ready to be printed, exported or placed on the presentation slide.

Setting up Scenario Analysis requires only the selection of the scenarios to compare, the output cells to analyse, and clicking the Compare Scenarios button.

Comparing Ranges of Formula Cells

You can select cell ranges and see a time-based comparison (for each period on the x-axis, you will see the value of the cash flow when the selected scenarios are active):

Comparing Individual Formula Cells

You can also select sparse cells individually and, for each scenario (on the x-axis), see the values of those cells when that scenario is active:

Percentage Changes

Below the scenario comparison chart you will find a table displaying the values you see in the chart and their percentage change compared to the scenario that is currently selected in the grid.

Updating the Scenario Comparison Chart and Table

If you’ve updated the scenarios or made other changes to the spreadsheet, when you go back to your scenario comparison charts, you will see that a warning icon appeared next to the analysis that you’ve previously made – this means that there were changes in the spreadsheet since the last time you’ve ran the analysis:

Customizing the Scenario Comparison Chart

You can customize the chart’s appearance by clicking the gear icon on the chart, as well as print the chart (and the comparison table) or save it by clicking the corresponding icons:

See Cells That Make Scenarios Different

Here you want to see the cells that cause differences among scenarios you want to compare, and hide those that are on the same assumptions.

  1. Go to the to Overview tab
  2. In the Scenarios section, select the scenarios you want to compare
  3. See them with all the cells that are not on their default assumption
  4. Now switch ON “Hide cells on same cases” and see only the cells that are NOT on the same case in all selected scenarios

Scenario Waterfall Analysis

Visyond offers an intuitive visual breakdown (in a waterfall chart) of what cells have changed between two scenarios and the contribution of each change to a selected output cell. In the example below, you can see what cells changed (and by how much) to take the Net Profit from its greater value in the Optimistic scenario to the lesser value in the Pessimistic scenario.

Budget vs. Actual

Scenarios can be used to compare and analyze Budget vs. Actual figures. See this article to learn more.

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Updated on January 13, 2022

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