BUS1MIS Management Information Systems

Semester 1, 2012

Excel: More Basic Skills

Week 3 Lecture 2

Administration

Online Quiz – Tutorial 2 (theory), Week 4

• 25 multiple choice and true/false questions• Conducted during tutorial time or at home• Becomes available on Thursday 22nd March at 9am• Remains available for a week• BUT – you only get one chance• 50 minute time limit• Tests Chapter 1, Section 1.1 p. 3 – 13 and Section 1.2• Textbook can be used

This subject is about using IT to provide a business with a competitive advantage.

Spreadsheet software such as Microsoft Excel can be used to aid in the planning and implementation of a competitive advantage.

We are aiming at using a spreadsheet to model the financial operations of a business.

The model needs to be flexible so that we can try out different business scenarios.

Through understanding the different business scenarios we can make informed management decisions

More Basic Excel Skills

In this lecture the key ideas are:

• Increasing values by set and % amounts• Key value tables• Absolute references• IF statements

Increasing values by set amounts

If Salary increases by $500 per year what is the formula in:

• C3?• D3?

Increasing values by % amounts

If Salary increases by 5% per year what is the formula in:

• C3?• D3?

In general, if a is the original amount and r is the % increase:

Fill in this space during the lecture

Key Values TablesThe salary increase example on the previous page is not very flexible. If we wanted to investigate different salary increases we would need to make multiple changes to our spreadsheet.

To avoid making multiple changes we use a Key Values Table to store changeable data.

Key Values Tables

To accommodate a key values table we need to make some changes to the formulae in our cells.

Scenario Old contents of C8 New contents of C8

Constant =B8 + 500

% =B8 * (1 + .05)

What now happens if we change the values in B3 or B4?

Absolute References

For the example used in the previous slide what happens if we copy the contents of C8 across to D8?

C8 D8

B8 + B3

Is this what we want to happen?

Copying Key Values

To stop Excel from updating a key value cell address during a Copy we make the key value cell address ABSOLUTE.

Relative referencing using current C8 formula

Absolute referencing using C8 formula

=B8+B3 =B8 + $B$3

Formula in D8 using relative referencing

Formula in D8 using absolute referencing

=C8+C3 =C8 + $B$3

Important Spreadsheet Rules

• Use a Key Values Table to store all values that a manager might be interested in changing.

• In the calculation part of a spreadsheet, use cell addresses only – NOT values.

IF statements

In a spreadsheet cell where the contents may be a choice between 2 alternatives, use an IF statement.

=IF(comparison, value_if_true, value_if_false)

The comparison will always contain one of:

=, >, <, >=, <=, <> (not equal)

IF statements

1

2

3

4

5

6

7

8

9

10

11

A B C D E F G

6

34

2

7

8

2

10

35

11

92

What are the results of these IF statements?

1. =IF(B6<B7, B7, B6)2. =IF(B2-B1>20, “More”, “Less”)3. =IF(B2>B1, IF(B3>B2, “B3 is highest”, “B2 is highest”), “B1 is highest”)