Tutorial 4 – Business Analytics

ERP Muesli is a company headquartered in Germany that sells multiple varieties of muesli (breakfast cereal) to grocers
and convenience stores in three different regions of Germany (North, South, and West). It collected product sales
information in two spreadsheets (Muesli Sales Orders; Muesli Price Market Report) and wants to use pivot tables to gain
insights into its sales patterns.

Tutorial 4 - Exercise 1
Download and open the ERP Muesli Sales Orders file. Tables 4-1 and 4-2 on page 662 provide guidance on what the data
is included in this Excel file.

ERP Muesli is interested in using pivot tables to find the answers to several business questions including:

1. Which customers purchase the most products?

2. Which customers generate the most revenue?
3. What products are most popular?
4. What products produce the most revenue?
5. Which products have the greatest consistency in daily sales? Which have the least?

Question 1: Which customers purchase the most products?

To create a pivot table to answer this question, click the Format tab, click any data value in the spreadsheet:

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 Select Insert and the select Pivot Table:

Click Okay to agree to the pivot table creation options.

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This will open a new worksheet tab with pivot table work area that resembles the following:

To build a pivot table that addresses the first question (Which customers buy the most products?), you begin by clicking
Sold to party in the field list, this will highlight the field and enable it to be dragged to Rows in the work area.

Next, click Order Quantity (item) in the field list and drag it to the Values box in the pivot table work area:

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The resulting pivot table in the left side of the worksheet will resemble the following:

To make better sense of which customers purchase the most items, sort the purchase quantities in the Sum of Order
Quantity (Item) column by clicking on a data element in the column and selecting Data:

Then select Sort, select Largest to Smallest and click OK:

The resulting pivot table will be sorted by quantity sold with the customers buying the most boxes of muesli listed in
order. It shows that Customer 80151 made the most purchases, followed by Customers 80166 and 80144.

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To save our work and move on to creating a pivot table to address the second question, we will rename the worksheet
to Most Purchases – Quantity. To do this, right click the worksheet tab, then select the Rename option and type Most
Purchases – Quantity.

The new tab in the spreadsheet will enable us to return to the data use to answer the first question in the future.

Question 2: Which customers generate the most revenue?

Because this question is like Question 1 but focuses on revenue generation rather than purchase quantity, the creation
of a pivot table to answer the question begins by repeating many of the steps illustrated on pages 1-3 of this tutorial.
This includes:

 Clicking on the spreadsheet’s Format tab.

 Clicking a data value.
 Clicking Insert.
 Selecting Pivot Table and clicking the OK button in the pop-up window.
 Dragging the Sold-to-Party field into Rows in the pivot table work area.

Then, you select and drag Net Value (Item) into the Values box:

The pivot table created in the previous steps should resemble the following:

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Sorting the Sum of Net Value (Item) column should provide a more obvious answer to the question. The steps to sort
this column are like those identified on page 4 of this tutorial for sorting the quantity column in the previous pivot table.
This includes:

 Clicking a data item in the column to be sorted.

 Selecting Data.
 Choosing Sort, and
 Selecting Largest to Smallest in the pop-up box before clicking the OK button.

The sorted pivot table will then resemble the following:

From this we see that customers 80151, 80144, and 80166 generated the most revenue for ERP Muesli. To display these
revenue values as currency, the Sum of Net Value (Item) column can be formatted as currency by clicking Home,
highlighting the data values in the column, and selecting Euros from the currency drop down options.

The resulting pivot table will subsequently resemble the following.

Repeating the steps on page 5 for renaming the worksheet used to answer Question 2 should be performed to save the
pivot table and worksheet before moving on to the next business question. This includes:

 Right clicking the worksheet tab and selecting the rename option in the pop-up box, and
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  Typing Most Customer Revenue as the worksheet name.

The spreadsheet will resemble the following when this is done:

Question 3: What products are most popular?

This question is essentially a question about the quantity of boxes purchased for each muesli flavor sold by ERP Muesli.
Creating a pivot table to answer this question involves repeating the steps identified on pages 1 and 2 of this tutorial
including:
 Clicking on the spreadsheet’s Format tab to open a new worksheet.
 Clicking a data value.
 Clicking Insert.
 Selecting Pivot Table and clicking the OK button in the pop-up window.

Because product name is found in the Customer Reference field, the next step in answering this question involves
selecting Customer Reference in the field list and dragging it to the Rows box.

The next step is to select the Order Quantity (Item) field to the Values box.

The resulting pivot table will resemble the following:

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To make this table more informative, the Row Labels column can be renamed Products, by selecting the Row Labels cell
and changing its contents to Products. The result will resemble the following:

While scanning the Sum of Order Quantity (Item) reveals that ERP Muesli sold more boxes of 500g Nuts muesli (929681)
than any other product, adding a pivot chart to the worksheet would help company managers identify the best -selling
products. Adding a pivot chart to the worksheet starts by clicking a data value in pivot table, selecting Insert, and then
selecting Pivot Chart:

Choosing the column chart option in the resulting pop-up window, creates a rendering of the data visualization and
clicking the OK button causes the chart to be added to the pivot table worksheet.

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If the chart overlaps the pivot table, move it to the right of the table so that the worksheet resembles the following:

The resulting worksheet enables ERP Muesli to see that its 500g Nuts muesli is its best-selling product in terms of
quantity sold; it also reveals that 1Kg Strawberries and 1Kg Blueberries muesli are also popular. In terms of quantity sold,
the company’s 500g Raisins muesli is least popular product.

To save the pivot table and chart created to answer Question 3, rename the worksheet Product Quantity following the
guidance provided on page 5 of this tutorial.

Question 4: What products produce the most revenue?

Creating a pivot table to answer this question is not very different from that used to answer Question 3 but requires
replacing quantity with revenue. Like Question 3, creating a pivot table for Question 4 involves repeating steps on pages
1 and 2, and 7 of this tutorial:

 Clicking on the spreadsheet’s Format tab to open a new worksheet.

 Clicking a data value.
 Clicking Insert.
 Selecting Pivot Table and clicking the OK button in the pop-up window.
 Dragging the Customer Reference field to the Rows box in the pivot table work area.

Next, the select the Net Value (Item) field to the Values box.

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The resulting pivot table will resemble the following:

Using the guidance provide on page 8 of this tutorial, change Row Labels to Products and using the guidance provided
on page 6 of this tutorial, change the format of values in the Sum of Net Value (Item) column to Euros. To further
enhance the readability of the pivot table, change Sum of Net Value (Item) to Product Revenue. The pivot table should
now resemble the following:

While a quick scan of the revenue column indicates that the 1Kg Blueberries muesli and the 1Kg Strawberries muesli
products are generating the most revenue for ERP Muesli, adding a pivot chart is likely make the worksheet even more
valuable. Adding a pivot chart to the worksheet involves following the guidance on pages 8 and 9 of this tutorial
including:

 Clicking a data value in the pivot table, selecting Insert, and choosing Pivot Chart, and
 Choosing a Pivot Chart option (for this worksheet choose the Line chart option) and clicking OK.

After ensuring that the chart does not overlap the pivot table, the worksheet should resemble the following:

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Save the worksheet by renaming the worksheet tab Product Revenues using the guidance provided on page 5 of this
tutorial.

Question 5: Which products have the greatest consistency in daily sales? Which have the least?

Creating a pivot table to address product sales consistency necessarily repeats the initial steps used the answer the
previous question including:

 Clicking on the spreadsheet’s Format tab to open a new worksheet.

 Clicking a data value.
 Clicking Insert.
 Selecting Pivot Table and clicking the OK button in the pop-up window.
 Dragging the Customer Reference field to the Rows box in the pivot table work area because this field includes
product names, and,
 Dragging Order Quantity (Item) to the Values box to enable looking at sales in terms of boxes sold.

To add daily sales information to the pivot table, drag Document Date to the Columns box.

The resulting pivot table should resemble the following:

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The Grand Totals row indicates that sales on 3/10/2020 were approximately 50% more than those for 03/12/2020 which
suggests that daily sales across all products may not be consistent. However, the question to be answered is about
consistency in the daily sales of individual products and providing a visual depiction of the data may be the best way to
see the sales consistency of individual products. So, we will create a pivot chart using the guidance provided on page 8
of this tutorial. Select the Line chart option for your pivot chart and click the OK button to a dd it to the worksheet.

The pivot table and chart on the worksheet should resemble the following:

From the line chart, it can be observed that in terms of quantity sold, the 500g Nuts, 1Kg Blueberries, and 1Kg
Strawberries muesli demonstrate the greatest consistency in daily sales while the 500g Strawberries and 500g
Blueberries muesli products demonstrate the least consistency. Note that text has been added beneath the pivot table to
summarize the answers to the questions about daily sales consistency. Because another way to answer this question
focuses on sales revenue, rename this worksheet Sales Quantity Consistency and create a new worksheet and pivot

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table that includes sales revenue data. The pivot table work area should resemble that for the one you just created but
will have Net Value (Item) instead of Order Quantity (Item) in the Values box.

After changing the columns to display currency, the resulting pivot table should resemble the following:

To better illustrate consistency in daily product revenues, add a pivot chart (line chart option) to the worksheet using
the guidance provided on pages 10 and 12 of this tutorial.

The line chart indicates that in terms of daily revenue generation the 1Kg Blueberries muesli and 1Kg Strawberries
muesli demonstrate both high and relatively consistent revenues with the 500g Nuts muesli demonstrating more
moderate but relatively consistent revenue generation. The 500g Strawberries and 500g Blueberries muesli product are
least consistent in daily revenue generation. Note that text has been added beneath the pivot table to summarize

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answers to the questions in terms of sales revenue. To make this worksheet available for future review and
consideration, rename it Product Revenue Consistency.

Use Save As to save your spreadsheet with its five named pivot table worksheets with a file name that includes your
name, Tutorial 4 (e.g. ManouchehrTabatabaei_Tutorial 4_Exercise 1).

Upload your renamed Excel file to the Tutorial 4 Dropbox. This complete Tutorial 4.

You must upload your Excel file to be graded. Do not save it as PDF.

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