Dates, Time & Schedules
Generate a Dynamic Sequence of Years & Multi-Year Forecast Headers (SEQUENCE)
Spill vertical or horizontal N-year financial forecast timelines from a single Start_Year and Horizon_Years input using SEQUENCE(N, 1, Start_Year, 1) or SEQUENCE(1, N, Start_Year, 1).
Stop hardcoding 2026, 2027, 2028 across multi-year valuation models!
Discounted cash flow (DCF) models, capital-expenditure budgets, and 5-to-10-year SaaS ARR projections break down whenever an analyst updates the base year in cell B2 while forgetting to update hardcoded year columns or dragged +1 formulas!
Generating your forecast timeline dynamically with SEQUENCE(Rows, Columns, Start_Year, Step) lets a single Start_Year cell (say 2026) and Horizon_Years cell (say 5) control the entire timeline—either spilling vertically down a column with SEQUENCE(B3, 1, B2, 1) -> [2026; 2027; 2028; 2029; 2030] or horizontally across forecast columns with SEQUENCE(1, B3, B2, 1)—and computing the terminal forecast year directly as Start_Year + (Horizon_Years - 1) * Step!
| Forecast Layout Goal (Start = 2026, Horizon = 5) | Dynamic Formula Pattern | Generated Year Sequence |
|---|---|---|
| Vertical Annual Schedule | =SEQUENCE(B3, 1, B2, 1) | 2026, 2027, 2028, 2029, 2030 (down rows) |
| HorizontalDCF Header Row | =SEQUENCE(1, B3, B2, 1) | 2026 | 2027 | 2028 | 2029 | 2030 (across cols) |
| Biennial / Olympic / 2-Year Step | =SEQUENCE(B3, 1, B2, 2) | 2026, 2028, 2030, 2032, 2034 |
Spill a Vertical N-Year Timeline & Extract Terminal Forecast Year
Validates positive horizon B3 >= 1 and extracts the final year via INDEX(SEQUENCE(B3, 1, B2, B4), B3, 1).
=IF(OR(B2 < 1900, B3 < 1), "Invalid Year Horizon", INDEX(SEQUENCE(B3, 1, B2, B4), B3, 1))Format Fiscal Year Span Label ("FY2026-FY2030")
Builds an executive summary header showing the exact start and terminal fiscal years.
=IF(OR(B2 < 1900, B3 < 1), "Invalid Year Horizon", "FY" & B2 & "-FY" & INDEX(SEQUENCE(B3, 1, B2, B4), B3, 1))Try the example
Use the original values or change them to test your understanding.