How To Meet the Criteria - A Guide

A Guide to Meeting the Criteria

1A How spreadsheets are used

Describe how spreadsheet software can be used in four areas of office or business administration:

• to present information 
• to perform calculations accurately 
• to perform repeated processes 
• to manage lists of information 

Finance

Used for accounts, calculations, predicting cash flow, invoices, statements and many more activities involving money to which spreadsheets are ideally suited

Customer Service
Customer address lists, details of what they bought stored on a spreadsheet used as a database, share information about purchases, refunds etc with Finance. Quick search of records to make dealing with customers more efficient

Sales

Product sales and popularity figures, displayed as charts, records of how individual products sell in different areas, sales people's activities, commission calculations, records of customer information

Personnel / HR
Staff details stored on spreadsheets used as a database, records of salary changes, tax codes, qualifications etc., Telephone contact list can be easily sorted in A-Z order. Quick search of who works in which department or who has particular qualifications etc

1B Spreadsheet file types P2

You will be provided with an original spreadsheet file to be converted into a variety of formats. Save the data in three different formats and explain why each could better meet a particular purpose.

.xlsx is the normal Excel 2007-2010 version but not everyone may be able to open this if they have non-Microsoft or older software

.csv is a comma separated value type of file where each record (or row on a sheet) is stored separated by commas. This type of file is smaller as it has no graphic effects and can be opened and read by almost anyone so is ideal for sharing widely where the data may need to be used with other or limited programmes. Only one sheet can be saved in this way at a time, though, and links between sheets may be lost.

.pdf can be used to publish all the sheet data (including graphs, colours etc) as a multi-page document. this type can be read by almost anyone anywhere but cannot be edited, only viewed.

Here is a sample completed task

P3 Football League Table (Enter and update data) (2A)

Print out the football league table with the two extra match results added to the data

P4 Football League Table (Formulae) (2A)

Copy the sheet for 2A
Add formulae for Goal difference and Points
Print the formulae sheet

P5 Football League Table (Formatting data) (2B)

Copy the sheet again
Add a column for Position
Enter the final positions
Change the display to make it attractive / interesting and sort so that No 1 team is at the top

P6 Football League Table (Presenting data) (2B)

Make charts from the data to show:

the Team and total Points
Goals For and Goals Against for each team

P7 Testing your sheets (3A)

Use data validation to restrict the numbers that can be put in some cells (e.g. number played has to be less than 8 or numbers won, drawn or lost must be between 0 and 7)
Do some calculations to check your sheet formulae for points totals

P8 Instructions for using the tables (3A)

Your guide for a new user that shows how to set up data validation or how to put the data in a particular order. Screen prints and some explanation will be good for this.
Add something about the importance of copying sheets before making changes so that you always have a back-up.

Choosing the right chart

In this task you will be deciding which type of chart is most suitable to display all of parts of the various figures shown.

1. How people spent their time!

Make a chart to show how one of these people spend their time.


Make a chart to compare how much time all 5 people spend on eating.

Make a chart to compare how each person's day is spent.

2. Student results

Make a chart to compare how these 5 students did in each subject.

3. Progress with jobs

Make a chart to compare how these 5 people are progressing with the three jobs they have to do.

4. Profit and loss

[Click to enlarge this chart so you can read the data]

Make a chart to show the profit or loss for each month. Illustrate the difference between loss and profit months with a colour or effect.

Make a chart to show how the bank balance changes over the year.

Changes colours, fill effects, lines etc. to make these charts more attractive and clear. Make the final set of charts full size displays on their own sheets.

Name the sheets suitably and save the spreadsheet file.

Task Sheet for Advising Peter

Peter's budget tasks

Peter is a carpenter. He makes kitchen cabinets and also does general building work. He is planning to introduce a new product – oak gazebos which are like permanent wooden tents people can have in their garden.

Your task is to help him work out how his cash flow will change over the year for different numbers of jobs that he hopes to get.

You are provided with a spreadsheet that has been partially completed. Download that at this link and save it.

1. You will need headings for the other months. Add February to December. (Remember, there is an easy way!)

2. Add a formula in cells G5 to G7 which will show the profit on each type of job. (Ignore other expenses at this stage, just take the cost away from the price)

3. Add the number of jobs he expects to get each month from this table.

4. Enter a formula to show the total number of jobs each month

5. Enter a formula to enter the income for January from each type of job. This will be the job price x number of jobs

6. Show the total income figures in row 20, the sum of the three figures above

7. In the Expenditure section, the cost of the Oak timber will be the number of Oak gazebo jobs x the Oak gazebo cost. Similarly, you can enter formulae to show Kitchen cabinet materials and General building costs.

8. Wages are for someone to help with the building jobs. He pays £100 per building job

9. The other expenses, drawings to sundry expenses, can all be assumed to be the same each month. Use either a formula or other method to copy these across.

10. Show the total expenditure figures in row 38.

11. The monthly profit will be his total income – total expenditure

12. The bank balance for January is entered already. From February it will be January’s balance + February’s profit. That formula can be copied for the other months.

13. Create a chart that shows Peter’s total jobs each month

14. Create a chart that shows his profit or loss for each month. Change the colours displayed so that the months with a loss stand out (eg profit in green, loss in red)

15. Create a chart that shows how his bank balance will change over the year.

16. Create three charts which indicate the cost and profit components of each type of job, expressing each as a percentage.

17. Copy the spreadsheet and display the formulae used.

Peter now wonders what would happen if he had to take July off too and would not be able to do any jobs that month. He realises that he will have to reduce his monthly drawings (what he pays himself each month) as it is important that he does not go overdrawn in December. By changing his monthly drawings determine the most he can pay himself each month and still be in the black at the end of the year.

Keep a separate copy of the chart showing this.

Output

• Sheet with complete data entered 
• A chart of total jobs each month 
• A profit and loss chart 
• A bank balance chart 
• Job cost / profit charts 
• Formulae sheet 
• Effect of July holiday and lower drawings chart

[Word version available here] | [Download the draft spreadsheet here]