
PFE Chapter 32, Goal Seek and Solver            page 1 
CHAPTER 32:  USING GOAL SEEK AND SOLVER
*
 
slight bug fix:  July 12, 2003 
Chapter contents 
Introduction..................................................................................................................................... 1 
32.1.  Installing Solver.................................................................................................................... 2 
32.2.  Using Goal Seek and Solver:  a simple example .................................................................. 4 
32.3.  What’s the difference between Solver and Goal Seek? ........................................................ 7 
EXERCISES ................................................................................................................................... 9 
 
 
Introduction 
  Goal Seek and Solver are Excel tools that to produce targeted results from your models 
(the technical jargon is “calibrate your model”).  If this sentence sounds a bit dense, read on—
you’ll see that these tools are extremely useful. 
 Although Solver is a much more sophisticated tool than Goal Seek, we won’t use many 
of its more advanced capabilities.  For our purposes, Goal Seek and Solver are thus largely 
interchangeable—they can both do most of the financial tasks that we require, and they are not 
                                                
 
*
  Notice:  This is a preliminary draft of a chapter of Principles of Finance with Excel by Simon Benninga 
(benninga@wharton.upenn.edu
).  Check with the author before distributing this draft (though you will probably get 
permission).  Make sure the material is updated before distributing it.  All the material is copyright and the rights 
belong to the author.