Spreadsheet Software
Work-based scenarios
The new AAT QCF qualification includes a compulsory Spreadsheet unit as part of its Level
3 syllabus. Spreadsheets play a pivotal role in the finance and accountancy profession.
Whether you work in practice, and prepare working papers for clients, or you are in a
management accounting position preparing budgets and costings, it is inevitable that at
some point you will need to work with spreadsheets.
‘Before becoming a lecturer, I worked as a Process Excellence Specialist in the aeroengineering industry specialising in spreadsheets and databases. My role was to
demonstrate to staff, from engineers and scientists to accountants and buyers, the
benefits that spreadsheets could bring to their working lives. Management were
amazed how a task that could take 5 hours, could be reduced to 10 minutes using the
functionality of a spreadsheet’
Michael Siviter – Lecturer at Kaplan Financial and Microsoft Excel Trainer
Michael has created some work-based case studies which apply some of the techniques that
could be examined in your Spreadsheet assessment.
These scenarios should not be used as an alternative to a classroom course.
Please contact your training provider for course information.
Spreadsheet Software
Work-based scenarios
The Basics and Formatting
This work-based scenario will cover the following spreadsheet skills:
-
Creating and saving a new workbook
Adding and renaming worksheets within a workbook
Inserting / deleting rows and columns
Formatting cells (including cell merge)
Copy and paste
Basic calculations
Conditional formatting
Relative and absolute cell referencing.
Scenario 1 – Wizzkids
Sandra Jones runs a playgroup called Wizzkids. Over the last 12 months, the business has
become more successful and there are now 12 children attending the playgroup on a regular
basis. Sandra does not currently keep a comprehensive set of records of the children and
the times that they have attended the playgroup, and relies on memory and guesswork when
charging parents.
Sandra realises that now the business is growing, she needs a better organised system in
place.
Sandra has asked you to help her.
Tasks:
1. Open a new workbook and save this as Scenario 1 – Wizzkids Week 1
2. You will need two worksheets. Rename them ‘Hours’ and ‘Money Owed’.
The ‘Hours’ worksheet will list the children attending the playgroup and the hours that
they have attended that week.
The ‘Money Owed’ worksheet will show the fees outstanding per child.
3. On the ‘Hours’ worksheet:
a) You need 7 column headings in row 2: Name / Monday / Tuesday/ Wednesday /
Thursday / Friday/ Total.
b) In row 1, merge the five cells above the week day headings. Call this merged cell
‘Days of Week’ and make this bold.
Sandra has made the following notes relating to the children that have attended the
playgroup this week.
Notes:
Sam Smith attended Monday and Tuesday from 9am until 11am both days.
Liam Jones and Suki Lee both attended the group on Wednesday and Thursday for 6 hours
on each day.
Spreadsheet Software
Work-based scenarios
On Friday, there were 4 children at the playgroup. They were Peter and Paul Worzi, who
both attended from 10am until 2pm; Jessica Wild from 10am until 3pm and Joshua Brown
who attended for 4 hours.
Cameron Fields attended every day this week for 4 hours each day, apart from Wednesday,
when he stayed an extra hour.
Emily Pickers attended in the afternoons only from 2pm until 6pm; Monday to Thursday.
Simon Day attended the group the same times as Emily but was picked up two hours earlier
on Wednesday.
Sandra runs a ‘Fun Tots’ morning group on Tuesday and Wednesdays, which run from 9am
until 11am. Inderjit Kaur, Frankie Williams and Joel Simpson attended these sessions on
both days.
c) Enter this information into the ‘Hours’ worksheet, entering the number of hours
each child attended the playgroup on the relevant days. Use ‘auto fit’ to format
the ‘Name column’
d) Format the cells where you have entered the hours to ‘Number’ with no decimal
places
e) Format the cells where you have entered the names to ‘Text’.
f) In the ‘Total’ Column, use the ‘auto sum’ function to total the hours each child has
attended the playgroup this week.
g) In the row immediately below the last child entered, create a row called Total.
h) Use the ‘auto sum’ function to sum the total hours that Sandra will charge each
day.
i) Format the cells, by putting borders around all of the entered information. Also,
centre the cells which contain hours.
Sandra had forgotten to include the details of another child that attended the group this
week. Leroy Cannes attended on Friday for 4 hours. Also, she has remembered that Joshua
Brown did in fact attend the group two weeks ago and needs removing from this week’s
figures.
j) Insert a row above the totals and insert the hours Leroy attended
k) Delete the row relating to Joshua Brown.
l) Centre all Totals and headings and make them bold.
4. On the ‘Money Owed’ tab:
a) You need 5 columns; Name/ Hours/ Charge/ Paid/ Balance. Make these
headings bold.
b) Copy and paste the children’s names from the ‘Name’ column in the ‘Hours’
worksheet into the ‘Name’ column of this worksheet.
c) In the Hours column of this worksheet, use relative cell referencing to link this
worksheet to the ‘Hours’ worksheet. You should link the worksheets for the first
child in the list and then drag the formula down.
Spreadsheet Software
Work-based scenarios
Sandra charges a standard rate for each child of £8 per hour at the playgroup.
d) Insert a new row at the top of the ‘Money Owed’ worksheet. In cell A1 type
‘Hourly rate’
e) In cell B1, type the current Hourly rate which is £8. Shade this cell yellow.
f) In the ‘Charge’ column, use absolute cell referencing to calculate the Weekly
charge per child, multiplying the hours they have attended the group by the
hourly rate.
Parents pay Sandra on Friday evening for the childcare that week. Sandra has
communicated to parents that if there is more than £50 outstanding at the end of the week,
then their child won’t be able to attend the playgroup until they have paid the amount
outstanding.
The following payments were made to Sandra this week for the following children:
Child
Sam Smith
Emily Pickers
Inderjit Kaur
Cameron Fields
Suki Lee
Frankie Williams
Amount Paid by Parent:
£32
£60
£32
£150
£60
£25
g) Enter the payments into the ‘Paid’ column.
h) In the Balance column, use ‘auto-sum’ to calculate the amount outstanding per
child.
i) Use conditional formatting, to shade boxes red, where there is a balance
outstanding of more than £50.
j) Format the cells, by putting borders around all of the entered information. Format
any cells containing monetary values to currency (£).
k) Add a row after the last child’s name for totals. Make these bold.
l) Identify which children will not be able to attend the Wizzkids playgroup next
week. Note their names on the worksheet.