. You are going to create a spreadsheet that will use exponential smoothing as well as the forecast function in Excel to produce 2 different forecasts for a set of data. The forecasts using each method will give you different results.

The data is included below. You are to produce a forecast of January (month 13) sales for next year using:

a. Exponential smoothing using an = .2 (damping factor = 1- )

b. The forecast function

Use the Excel formula for this assignment. You will need to copy the formula from the month 12 exponentially smoothed forecast down to the row for month 13 to generate the forecast for that month.

For this problem you are going to want to extend your table of data to include month 13 (January of the next year) by adding a row at the bottom. This is because the forecast function uses a linear regression equation and the months need to be represented numerically. Starting over at 1 for January of next year will result in a forecast for the first January.

Month	Sales
1	20
2	23
3	19
4	15
5	13
6	15
7	16
8	21
9	22
10	27
11	21
12	25
13