Excel Hw1 Instructions For MIS303 Fall 2022 Introduction And

excel Hw1 Instructionsmis303 Fall 2022introduction And Objectivesin

You have been hired as a consultant to a retail store. The total revenue for the store comes from the sales of a mixture of 3 different products (Products A, B and C). You are provided with historical sales data for three products. You must first make some conclusions regarding sales for the year 2019. Then, you need to decide how much of each product to order in 2020.

Lastly, you will make a recommendation on the appropriate mixture and pricing of products to stock for the coming year. Spreadsheets are one of the most commonly used software tools in corporations because they are so easy to work with and so adaptable to a regular work task. This assignment is intended to use a spreadsheet application such as Microsoft Excel as a reporting, data analysis and decision support system in a retail operation. You are to follow the instructions to complete and submit the assignment as individuals. No collaboration or co-working is allowed.

Paper For Above instruction

This assignment aims to evaluate your proficiency in utilizing Microsoft Excel for data reporting, analysis, and decision-making within a retail business context. You will analyze historical sales data, prepare detailed reports, forecast future sales, and develop meaningful visualizations to support business strategy. The task is structured into specific sections focusing on data manipulation, calculation, summarization, and graphical representation, which collectively mirror real-world retail analytics tasks.

Introduction and Purpose

In a competitive retail environment, data-driven decisions are crucial for optimizing product mix, inventory management, pricing, and profitability. Using Excel as a decision support system allows for flexible, accurate, and efficient analysis. This assignment encapsulates these skills through practical tasks involving sales data analysis, forecasting, and visualization, ultimately aiding retail managers in strategic planning.

Part A: Data Reporting and Processing

The first segment involves working with sales records recorded in a dataset. The tasks include formatting the dataset as an Excel table to enable easier data management and applying sorting functions. Sorting by region is required in a custom order—Midwest, East, West, South—and then by product ID within each region. This ensures that sales data is organized systematically for subsequent analysis.

Another key operation is to perform lookups to integrate product prices from a separate summary worksheet. Using the VLOOKUP function with the product ID as the lookup value, you will retrieve corresponding prices, facilitating the calculation of subtotal sales (Price multiplied by Units Sold). Applying formulas to compute discounts, which vary based on regional and seasonal criteria, exemplifies practical use of nested IF functions in Excel. Calculating discount amounts and final order totals completes this section, reflecting typical retail sales adjustments and financial calculations.

Part B: Financial Summary and Forecasting

This section requires inputting personal identifiers and section details, followed by calculating projected sales for 2020 based on a specified percentage increase (14%). You will determine revenues, costs of goods sold, gross profit, operational expenses, and taxes—all essential financial metrics in retail business analysis. These calculations not only inform profitability but also guide inventory and sales strategies.

Specifically, the revenue for each product in 2020 is derived from projected units sold multiplied by unit price. Costs of goods sold are similarly calculated using unit cost. The cumulative totals across all products for revenue and COGS enable the calculation of gross profit, which offers insight into the core profitability of operations before accounting for operational expenses.

Further, you are expected to allocate operational expenses into salaries, advertising, and miscellaneous costs as percentages of total revenue. Deducting these expenses from gross profit yields earnings before taxes, which are subject to a 25% tax rate. The resulting net profit represents the company's profitability after tax obligations, offering a clear picture of financial health and informing strategic decision-making.

Part C: Visual Analysis through Graphs

The final task involves creating a pie chart to visually illustrate the contribution of each product to the company's total profitability in 2020. This requires calculating individual profits (Revenue minus COGS) for each product based on forecasted data. The chart must have an informative title, display percentage labels indicating each product’s share of total profit, and include a properly labeled legend.

This visual representation is essential in communicating complex data succinctly, enabling stakeholders to quickly grasp the relative profitability of product lines. Such graphical tools are integral in strategic planning, marketing focus, and resource allocation decisions in retail management.

Conclusion

This comprehensive Excel-based project simulates real-world retail analytics processes, emphasizing data organization, formula application, forecasting, and visualization skills. Mastery of these tasks will enhance your ability to support business decisions through quantitative analysis, fostering an understanding of how data informs strategic retail operations. As you complete the tasks, ensure accuracy, proper formatting, and logical presentation, which are critical in professional data reporting environments.

References

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