Excel Dashboard

***THIS IS DUE TONIGHT 11 APR 2017***

Instructions

Throughout this course, we’ve practiced ways to analyze and model data from

financial operations so that it assists in decision-making. Most of our

models have been discrete, standalone designs. Often managers in

organizations would like a high-level snapshot of financial performance that

coveys critical information at a glance. Dashboards are such presentation

tools. Excel has made creating dashboards easier and more effective.

In this assignment, you are required to create an Excel Dashboard by using

at least three of the Excel functions and/or capabilities that we have

learned in class. The details of the case and the raw data from which to

work are in the attached Excel workbook. Since this is raw data, there may

be analysis steps that you have to perform to prepare the data for its final

presentation on your dashboard.

There is a lot of information in the course content on dashboards. Please

read it carefully. You should recognize most of this advice from our early

lectures on graphs and charts. What is different for this dashboard

assignment is that you are bringing together multiple displays of

information in a meaningful way to tell a story, or in this case, respond to

the question in the problem (will the company achieve 2010 forecasted

sales).

The DUE DATE on this assignment is listed in the syllabus. I suggest that

you start the project early. In this situation, you MAY use the attached

spreadsheet that contains the raw data as the starting place for your

dashboard.

As you research and work on this project, I encourage you to post additional

references and/or video links that you think may be helpful to the group.

You have a lot of freedom in this project and it is an opportunity to

practice and demonstrate the skills you’ve gained in class. You will be

graded on the following criteria:

1) appropriateness and complexity of Excel features used

2) accuracy of calculations, analyses, or presentations

3) overall theme and presentation

4) effectiveness of dashboard in communicating results and responding to the

question

5) the quality and accuracy of your narrative response to the question

Make the dashboard meaningful, but have fun!