For my project I am going to do a spreadsheet on a shop that sells things like CD's, dvd's and video games.

GCSE Coursework for <<Tim Vague >>

Project Title: <<Spreadsheet Project>>

Black writing is the headings that you must use for your write up.

Red writing is here to advise you and so can be deleted if you are certain that you have fulfilled the requirement.

Identify

Background to the problem and end user

For my project I am going to do a spreadsheet on a shop that sells things like CD’s, dvd’s and video games. I will use the spreadsheet to keep track of what the shop buys and sells and what sort of profit they make. The shop is an online shop so I may have to do things like sort out the deliveries of the items to people’s homes. The shop is losing track of all their money, like how much they are spending and the profit they are making. This is why I am doing this spreadsheet. One sheet will be on what the shop spends their money on and what they buy and stuff, another sheet will be what they sell these items for and the profit they are making. I might have to store addresses for the deliveries and match the addresses with the membership number, this is for the deliveries of the items.

Possible alternative solutions

There is more than one way of keeping track of financial details like expenditure and profit. You can do a spreadsheet either by hand or on computer, you could use things like an account book as well. I could use word on the computer as well by making a table and keeping the financial details there.

Objectives/End user requirements

My objectives are to keep track of the financial details of my online shop. I will try to keep track of all the money spent on the items, all the money received from the sales of the items and then to calculate the profit. I must be able to display all the customers from Kent. I need to keep track of all the deliveries that I would need to make. I would have to store all the addresses of members and regular customers.

Analyse

Choice and justification of software

This is a preview of the whole essay

Analyse

Choice and justification of software

Microsoft Excel is a spreadsheet program and this is the program I will be using. It will allow me to do calculations in the program so I can take the amount I bought the items for away from the amount I sold the items for to give me my profit. I can also make buttons which when I click them can take me to another page. This can be very useful. I could also use word – a word processing program, to keep my data in. This would be quite good but it would not be as good or as easy to use as excel would be. I could create a table in word to keep the data in but I would have to do all the calculations manually and then fill them in myself. In excel I can add all the data or subtract or do whatever calculation is needed in the program and it is so easy. I can fill in data on any cell on the spreadsheet and then add, subtract, divide or multiply them and get the result to appear in a cell that I have selected. Excel has everything I need for this project.

Choice and justification of hardware

I will be using both Windows XP and Windows 98, as I will be working on two different network systems. The computers with Windows XP on have Pentium 4 processors. I will be using a black laser printer to print off my work.

Data to be input

I will find the prices of the items in my shop by looking at similar shops and looking at what the average sort of price that the items are being sold at is.

Fill in the validation table (to stop incorrect data being entered):

How data will be processed by the system

Profit per item – In the cell that will have the profit of the item, I will write the correct formula needed in it. It will be the cell number of the amount the item was sold for, minus the cell number of the amount the item was bought for and then equals. This will calculate the profit per item.
Total profit – I will do the same as above but instead, in the cell which will have the total profit in, it will have a different formula in. It will have all the cell numbers of the profit per item added together and then equals. This will calculate the total profit made.

Forms of output

The data that is going to be output by the program is :
Profit per Item
Total Profit
Stock left over
Tax on each item
Total Tax

Back-up strategy

There are quite a few ways to back up our work and data. These include :

Floppy Disk – 1.44 Mb
Zip Disk – 100/200 Mb

CD-RW – 650-720 Mb

DVD-ROM – 2-3 GB

Tape

Security strategy

To keep the data safe I will need to set-up a password system, which has a back up system, and can only be accessed by certain users who the password will be given to.

Need for updates

The system would need to be updated weekly probably. It needs to be updated because maybe someone may have moved house or they may wish to stop receiving information e.g. leaflets, or flyers. Another reason may be that someone may not want there address, email address or phone number known by some stranger.

Design

Initial Designs for project

This is my first initial design for my spreadsheet. I have sort of followed the layout of this but it is slightly different.

This is my second initial design. It is pretty much the same as design 1, but the buttons are different. They are more like my actual ones.

User feedback on initial designs

Jon Bown ~ I really liked the first layout and the design really appealed to me. The pictures were great and so was the layout.
Jake Kimpton ~ I thought the 2nd layout was appealing. The square buttons were better than the circular ones.

Dave Wood ~ I thought both the layouts were really good, but I probably preferred design 2 because of the square buttons.

Final designs

This is my final design for my spreadsheet. I think it is fairly similar to design 2. I am pleased with the way it has turned out. I have used formulas to get the profit and the V.A.T. I have made buttons (macro’s) for quick access to the other sheets.

Test plans

Implement and Test

Evidence of the final system that has been created

Get a first printout of your system to help show a sequence of development

Go through work and annotate by underlining and explaining any errors or problems
If your work has changed since your final design explain why you had to change it

Printout of any further developments you did (and may have even failed at) – need to be annotated

Final printout of system

Evidence of testing (and correcting) of system

Annotate testing to show how the expected and actual results compare. Provide proof where possible by using screen shots

Even if your corrections don’t work, make sure that you provide evidence of you trying to correct them and the problems/error messages that you encountered.

Evaluate

Original objectives

I think I met all of my objectives. I kept track of the financial details of my shop. I kept track of how much money I have spent, how much I have received and the profit made. I have calculated how many items were sold. I have stored members and regular customer’s addresses.

User feedback on system

See Questionnaire

Further improvements

Respond to the comments made by your end user - whether you disagree or agree with them.

If you have disagreed with the comments made by your end user then you also need to find at least a couple of improvements that would make your system better.

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