Spot seasonal patterns in weekly or monthly figures
Prompt that separates season, trend and outliers in weekly or monthly figures and gives an adjusted answer. Paste it into an AI tool of your choice, which then spots seasonal patterns.
- Topic
- Spreadsheets & data
- Type
- Prompt
- Level
- Intermediate
- Time
- about 10 min
Results depend on the tool, the model and what you enter.
Result preview
Example: written by our editors, not real AI output.
Data: 24 months of revenue, two full cycles, enough for a cautious statement | Month | Seasonal index | | January | 78 | | March | 96 | | July | 84 | | November | 131 | | December | 148 | Trend: about +1% per month after seasonal adjustment Outlier: May a year earlier (+35%, discount campaign) Answer: July was not weak; adjusted, it is 3% above June. Certainty: medium, only two years of data
Fill in
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- monthly revenue of an online shop
- enquiries per week via the contact form
- daily visits to the website
- support tickets per week
- monthly bookings of a holiday flat
- 24 months, monthly
- 104 weeks, weekly
- 90 days, daily
- three years, monthly
- only ten months
- Was last month really weak?
- Is the new campaign working or is it the season?
- How many staff do we need in December?
- Is the business growing overall?
- When is a promotion worth it?
Your prompt
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This is an instruction for an AI, not the result itself.
Where this prompt works
These AI tools are a good fit for this prompt:
How to use it
- Fill in the fields or tap a suggestion. Leave out names, addresses and other personal data.
- Copy the finished prompt into an AI tool of your choice.
- Add the seasonal index as its own column in your sheet. Then you can compare future months directly with the expected level.
Why does this work?
Many apparent slumps or successes are just the season. Separating pattern, trend and outliers lets you compare like with like and decide more calmly.
Tips
- When a holiday such as Easter moves between March and April, it looks like a seasonal jump. Mark such months in the data.