Identify the Critical Factors in Your Models

Have you ever been faced with a large, complex spreadsheet model and been tasked with determining what the most important factors are?  What if you need to determine how sensitive your profits are to particular variables, such as material costs or market share?  Or perhaps you want to run a risk analysis in @RISK, but don’t know which variables are important enough to add distribution functions to. 

Included with the DecisionTools Suite, TopRank performs automated “what if” sensitivity analysis on Microsoft Excel spreadsheets to answer these questions. Define any output or “bottom line” cell or cells, and TopRank will automatically find and vary all input cells which affect your output. You can also control exactly which cells you’d like to analyze. The end result is easy-to-understand tornado charts, spider graphs, and other reports which clearly identify and rank which affect your bottom line the most.

TopRank has also been fully translated into Spanish, Portuguese, German, French, Russian, Japanese, and Chinese.

Learn how to get started quickly in TopRank
Watch videos of TopRank features

How TopRank Works

Simply take your existing spreadsheet model, select any cell or cells as outputs, and TopRank scans the spreadsheet to find cells which affect your results. Click the ‘Run What-if’ button and TopRank tries different values for each variable cell, changing values over ranges such as -10% and +10%. Each time a new value is tried, the spreadsheet is recalculated and new results are generated. Upon completion, TopRank ranks the variable cells according to the effect they have on your selected outputs. You can also select exactly which cells you wish to vary, and by how much, for a more customized analysis.

TopRank uses Vary functions in Excel to vary inputs across a range. TopRank functions are true Excel functions, and behave exactly as native Excel functions do. TopRank windows point to the cells they refer to via callouts, and changes in one place are automatically carried out in the other.

 See TopRank Add Inputs

Graphic Results
TopRank results are displayed in a variety of reports and charts. Graphs include:

Tornado Graphs – Display the relative ranking of one input versus another by comparing the effects of all inputs on results. For each input, the length of the bar indicates the amount of change the input caused on results.

 See Tornado Graph

Spider Graphs – Also compares the effects of multiple inputs on results. For each input, the percentage changes in its value from the base case is plotted on the X-axis, and the percentage change in results is plotted on the Y-axis. As inputs have different effects on results, the graph often resembles a spider.

 See Spider Graph

Sensitivity Graphs – The effects of an individual input on results can be plotted with a standard line graph. The value of the input is plotted on the X-axis and the value of results is plotted on the Y-axis. This simple X-Y plot indicates how results change in conjunction with the underlying input.

 See Sensitivity Graph

Advanced Features
Multi-Way What-If Analysis – Varies two or more inputs at the same time instead of one at a time. Multi-Way What-if Analysis calculates the effect of each combination of input values on the results.

VaryTable Function – Often in the real world inputs only vary among several possible values. The VaryTable function lets you specify a list or table of values among which an input varies.

Until now, What-if analysis was done by manually selecting a cell, trying two or three different “What-if” values, recording the values of some result cell, and repeating for a few other cells in the spreadsheet. This process was both time-consuming and non-rigorous. Now, in a matter of seconds, TopRank gives you the answers you need by performing a fast and rigorous analysis.

Designed for your largest, most complex models, TopRank Industrial adds the following features:

Support for @RISK Functions – TopRank Industrial recognizes @RISK probability distribution functions to provide more flexibility in modeling variation across an input. @RISK functions can model a greater variety of ranges and probabilities than standard TopRank Vary functions.

Unlimited Multi-Way What-If Analysis – TopRank Industrial supports an unlimited number of input combinations, while TopRank Professional allows only two or three variable combinations.

Part of the DecisionTools Suite

TopRank is part of the DecisionTools Suite, Palisade’s complete risk and decision analysis toolkit. The DecisionTools Suite includes @RISK, which adds risk analysis to Excel using Monte Carlo simulation, BigPicture for mindmapping and data exploration, PrecisonTree for visual decision tree analysis, TopRank for what-if analysis, NeuralTools and StatTools for data analysis, and more. TopRank is fully compatible with all DecisionTools programs and can be combined with them for greater insight and analysis. For example:

TopRank then @RISK
TopRank is useful for narrowing down the focus of large models before performing a risk analysis with @RISK. Especially with large models, this saves time and improves accuracy of your @RISK analysis. In addition, TopRank can use @RISK to represent a wider range of values than TopRank’s standard functions.

Watch how TopRank and @RISK work together

TopRank and PrecisionTree
TopRank can also be run with PrecisionTree models to identify the most critical factors in larger, more complex tree models.

» More about The DecisionTools Suite

Licensing and Training

TopRank, as part of the DecisionTools Suite, is available through a variety of licensing options, including corporate, network, and academic licenses. Training, consulting, and books can be bundled with your software to ensure you and your staff get the most out of your investment.