BUS1MIS Management Information Systems

Semester 1, 2012

Excel: Basic Skills

Week 2 Lecture 2

Spreadsheets

Used extensively in business for problems that involve data in rows and columns.

Spreadsheets

An intersection of a row and column is known as a Cell.

Each cell is referred to by its column followed by its row.

SpreadsheetsCells can contain:

• Labels• Values• References to other cells• Formulae• References to other cells AND formulae

SpreadsheetsSpreadsheets can be used by business in many ways.

For example:

• Planning and/or maintaining a budget.• Performing “what-if?” analysis• Displaying complex data in a graphical form

Household Budget

In the lecture example of using a spreadsheet to plan a budget the following basic Excel capabilities will be demonstrated.

Tabs and groups Adding cell references

Merging cells Adding formulae

Aligning text Copying cell contents

Changing fonts Help

Increasing column width Working with interest

Inserting rows Using key values

Formatting cells Absolute cell referencing

You will need these capabilities in upcoming weeks.

What-If? Analysis

Spreadsheets are useful for planning whether an intended competitive advantage is likely to be a good investment.

A well-designed, flexible spreadsheet allows different business scenarios to be modeled.

The lecture example will display how the use of key value tables in a spreadsheet allows “what-if?’ scenarios to be explored.

ChartsTo assist managers to make the best decisions for an organisation the data they require needs to be presented in an accessible way.

Charts are much easier to make sense of than a table full of values.

Year Cumulative Income

Cumulative Costs

2010 $0 $606,000

2011 $1,092,800 $1,166,000

2012 $2,313,400 $1,772,734

2013 $3,589,600 $2,392,678

2014 $4,913,300 $3,024,739

2015 $6,268,900 $3,663,721

2016 $7,624,500 $4,304,364

Charts

The lecture example will demonstrate the simple but extensive chart making facilities that Excel has.

Specifying Ranges

C1:E1

A1:A6

C4:E9

A9

BODMAS

When putting a, mathematical calculation in a cell it is important to remember the rules of BODMAS

1. brackets () left to right2. * / left to right3. + - left to right eg. (3 + 10) * 5 = 65

Two for you:

1000 * 1 + 0.2 =1000 * (1 + 0.2) =