Belle du jour is situated near Staines high street. Here is a map showing its location:
To access the company by road take the M25 junction 13 or A30 directly into Staines town. There are plenty of Car Parks situated throughout Staines, the nearest is opposite Debenhams Department store. The nearest main line station is Staines, or underground is Hatton Cross. The nearest bus station is opposite the Blue Anchor pub.
Here are the details of the shop.
There are 4 employees in this company they are all sales assistants that also work at the reception area.
The manager of Belle Du Jour is Josh brown.
I need to conduct the following research from the manager:
- How much money is spent purchasing the stock?
- How much salary does each person receive?
- How much stock is normally brought?
- What bills do you receive? How much does each bill cost?
- What are the finances for the month September?
- What the company would like to see on the modeling page?
I will consider asking the technical director these questions:
- What content would you like to see in the help guides?
- What form of validation checks are available to me with the software that I will be using?
- What form of network based help guides would you like?
I will include these questions in my survey for the staff at “Belle Du Jour”
- Would you consider yourself as computer literate?
- Do you know how to use excel spreadsheets?
- Have you ever used Microsoft Excel for handling data?
- Would you like instructions on how to use Excel spreadsheets?
- Have you got a qualification in a computer course?
- Have you had more than three years of experience using Excel?
- Are you able to construct a simple spreadsheet?
- Do you know how to convert data into a chart using Excel?
- Would you like a help guide to be available to you?
- Would you like assistance on the features that are accessible to you on Microsoft Excel?
Interviews with the key personnel
Josh brown, manager of belle du jour
Our shop is quite successful at the moment; we are always looking for ways of gaining more customers. At the moment our company has only one shop in Staines and is looking to expand the company. However we need to make sure that we are financially able to do this. We cannot afford to make any mistakes.
I would like this spreadsheet package to show me all the costs involved in an easy to use layout. On the spreadsheet modeling page I would like to see the possible outcomes when costs decrease and increase.
Our company spends around £4,000 a month purchasing the stock. This is a huge amount of money as we sell a range of bridal dresses and accessories. We usually purchase around 350-500 stock a month depending on the time of season. As the company is only a single business we only employ four members of staff. For a part-time employee we pay them £140-200 a month and for a full-time employee we pay them £900-1,100 a month.
The types of bills that the company has to pay are: electricity - £70, gas - £60, phone - £30, internet - £25, cleaner - £40, business rate - £60 and insurance - £60.
The company’s revenues for the month September is a total of £4,073 per month. In September £1,250 was spent on bridal dresses. £2,650 was spent on prom dresses, £65 was spent on jewelry and £108 was spent on tiaras.
The company’s expenses for the month September is a total of £3,645 per month. In September £345 was spent on the different bills and £2,100 and £1,200 is spent on the rent.
Colin smith – Technical Director Belle du jour Inc.
I am very enthusiastic about seeing a development in the company. In the future I would like to see our company expand all over the UK. My main concern is that it will be too complicated to use. We have a wide range of IT skills in this company. However it would be a waste time learning how to use a difficult package if they don’t have to. I think it would be very useful if you included an online help guide. I would like it to be web based if possible so that our employees could use the help guide anywhere on the network using a standard web browser rather than having to use costly software. We want to keep track of our finances in the cheapest way possible so we don’t lose too much profit.
The contents of the guide need to include:
Basic instructions on how to use the spreadsheet
Instructions on how to use your package
A more advanced section that includes such things as changing formulas and validation rules.
A page that has an e-mail help link where you can specify a particular problem and possibly a page with an information link where staff can view the common queries and problems.
The survey
Belle du jour inc. Employee suggestion questionnaire
Results of survey
Costs
Summary of investigation
Specification
Analysis of data and overview of the spreadsheet
The different pages I will be having on the spreadsheet are:
- Home page - This will be the main page where it shows the company name and the menu of links available.
- Summary of finance – This will show the current financial situation of the company’s business.
- Revenue – This shows the type of product they sell and the amount spent on each of these items.
- Wages finance – This will show the amount of each staff’s wages.
- Bills finance – This will show the different type of bills that they receive, the company of the bill and the amount they pay each month.
- Profit – This will show the current balance of profit for the current month.
- Predictions – This will show the predicted amount of profit for the next few months and will also include a graph to show the data information.
- Stock finance – This will show the supplies they sell and purchase. It displays the amount they order per week, an approximate price of the item and a brief description of the item.
- Help guide – This will give details on how to use the spreadsheet i.e. How to change formulas and validation check etc.
The layout of the spreadsheet will look like this:
I used the colours yellow, pink and blue because it is the company’s website colours and theme.
I think these colours are attractive to females this is good because the staff and customers are females as the shop only sell dresses and jewellery.
The special features that I will include in my spreadsheet are:
- Headings - this will be on each page so that you know what the table is showing.
- Validation checks – this is so that if an error occurred the computer will be able to tell you.
- Formulas - this is so that it will be efficient to use and a lot more accurate than typing the calculations into a calculator as you can make mistakes.
- Links – this is so that the information can be linked onto a different page rather than having to search through the other pages.
- Pound signs – this will be used to show the type of currency.
I will use headings because it will be clear to the staff, what each table is showing. It will make the spreadsheet in an understandable format.
I will use validation checks because it will only allow correct information to be entered.
I will use Formulas because it will save time working it out. These formulas will be useful to my spreadsheet.
I will use Links in my spreadsheet as you can click on the links to jump to the page you need instead of searching for the page.
I will use pound signs to show what the figures are showing and the type of currency it is.
Evaluation Criteria
The spreadsheet will have separate pages for bills, wages, revenue, predictions, a finance summary, online help guide and interactive predictions. The main page will be the summary of the financial situation of the company so that people can check and see at a glance the financial status.
The links will be available on every page this is so that it will be more efficient as the links can be used from any page. If links on all the pages then it will be organized and clear. To make the spreadsheet not confusing I will put the links in the same position. This will make sure that it is easy to find the links rather than having it in different places on the pages. I want the spreadsheet to be easy to use and be in a clear format so that staff can understand how to use it.
I will use graphs to summarize the data written so it can be shown in data and picture form. I will be creating a graph for the financial situation and the predictions.
Design of solution
The background colour that I have used is lilac. I chose to use this colour for the background because it is a colour that fits in well with the gold writing. I used Gold writing for the company name and the list of links because this is the company’s theme colour. The gold represents the special occasion.
There are links on the left of each page. This links are underlined so that the staff is aware it is a link. It stands out when it is underlined because it is shows that it is important.
The title of the spreadsheet is in bold so that it stands out to show the staff what the table is showing.
I used the colours yellow, blue and pink for the table because the company’s theme fits in with the colours. These colours are mostly feminine as it is aimed at female staff working in the company.
In the table the text is written in black as it stands out from the colours of the table.
I have placed a menu of links on every page in the same position so you can access the links from all the pages and this makes it more efficient to use. I decided to place the menu of links on the same position because there will be a clear format to every page instead of having to search for the links.
The formulas that I used are
- (Autosum) e.g. =SUM(A1:A2).
- Multiplication e.g. =B9*1.05
Hardware resources
I would recommend the following computer for users to run my spreadsheet on:
The total cost for this hardware package is £572.10 including VAT.
I will need about 3 of these packages for the company. One of the packages will be in the manager’s office and the other two will be on the reception desk.
The total cost of three hardware packages will be £1,716.30.
Software Resources
I have chosen to use Microsoft Excel because it is inexpensive compared to the other software packages and is a very popular type of software which most people have access to and know how to use this type spreadsheet program.
Data collection, data capture and input
This is the survey that I carried out
I asked these questions in order to find out the expectations of the staff using the spreadsheet program. I asked them how skillful they were with computers so that I will know what they are capable of doing.
I was hoping to find out how skillful they are at using Microsoft Excel and what features they would like me to include in the spreadsheet.
I designed my survey in a table with closed answers (yes or no) only so I would be able to determine the average answer instead of having maybe or sometimes which wouldn’t be very accurate.
I collected the finance figures to complete my spreadsheet tables, these were collected from the manager at the interview.
The lists of figures that I have found out from the interview are shown below:
Data verification and validation
The cells that I will need to put validation checks on are the wage and bills section. This allows you to check that the information that is entered is correct. You can restrict entries and limit the amount of information.
Here is a list of cells which validation checks cannot be set in my spreadsheet:
Summary, predictions and the profit. These cell spreadsheets shouldn’t have a validation rule put in because they will need to be altered. Instead you should turn on the sheet protection so that someone cannot change what is entered into the cell.
Here are some of the validation checks that I have included in my spreadsheet:
I have made my spreadsheet cells read-only so that it won’t let the formulas be accidentally deleted. Read-only is a setting that allows a file be read or copied, but not changed or saved. This will mean that people cannot change what is entered in the cell so that the data is secure.
I have also turned on my sheet protection. Worksheet protection enables you to protect elements on a worksheet — such as cells with formulas — from all user access. This can be unprotected to change certain cells. When I try to change a cell this message appears on the screen.
I will now test my validation checks to make sure that they are working. To test the validation check I will click on the cell with data validation on and type in an invalid number. If the validation check detects that there is an incorrect data entered, an error message will occur. This means that the validation check is working. If you type in the correct data then it allows you to change the data in the cell.