These work the same in both the Windows and Mac versions of Excel 2016. The older FORECAST function still exists for compatibility with worksheets created in older versions, but if you’re creating a new sheet, you’ll want to use one of these…įORECAST.LINEAR: creates a straight-line forecastįORECAST.ETS: estimates a trend using seasonalityį: shows the length of a seasonal cycleį: the confidence interval of the estimateį: calculates 8 statistical algorithms Excel 2016 has a handful of new functions to help you forecast numbers – typically sales data – more accurately than before.