Hello I need help with my data analysis project.

Requirements: Forecast Project

Students will use in part the lessons they learned to construct a Business forecast. The premise behind this project will hopefully correlate the student and a real-life scenario pertaining to an area of business of their choice. This forecast will be constructed using two elements:

1. Quantitative Excel data report
2. Qualitative analysis as if the student was explaining the forecast to a Senior Leader within a Corporation

The logistics surrounding this project stems from using a month-over-month Income Statement example that can be found in various different ways (In which we will go over). The Goals after the student selects their preferred Income Statement to use for the project consist of:

• Uncover a Non-Interest Expense (NIX) that can be forecasted out for the upcoming year (example: Salaries, Full Time Equivalency (FTE), Marketing, Communications, etc.)
• Evaluate each month in terms of the selected expense and select a run-rate of a 30-day and 31-day month that can be forecasted
• Use the selected 30 and 31-day months as a baseline and build a month-over-month bridge
• Add 3-5 self-determined forecasted changes to the bridge, which will either increase or decrease the annual forecast. For example, if you are forecasting FTE and wanted to hire 100 more employees, this could be added to your bridge as 1 change.
• Construct separate Excel tabs adding your changes to the baseline, in which the final tab will be a summary of the baseline + changes to show your new forecast for the upcoming year.
• A detailed, but brief qualitative analysis will then need to be constructed and presented to the class, in which questions will be asked to challenge the analysis. This will act as a real-life role play, which could rationalize how a conversation could go with a Senior Leader whom is only allowing a short time frame to convince.

Steps for completion:

1. Use the attached example Income Statement and change the: Company name, Operating Expense categories, and numbers around to write your own story. Additionally, if you want to find and use an existing example Income Statement feel free to do so. The easiest way to do this is by utilizing Google and use a keyword search such as Monthly Income Statement Example or Apple monthly income statement example. Remember when finding an example, it must be a month over month or Quarterly view (do not use an annual statement). Also, I invite you to search for companies that interest you such as: Apple, Amazon, etc. or maybe it is the company you work for.

* Quarterly view Income Statements are a little more difficult to forecast, but feel free to use.

2. Create Excel workbook with the Income Statement as the first Tab
3. Create a new tab and label it Baseline
4. For your baseline you will choose ONE non-interest expense category and a 30- & 31-day month associated with that category to be your starting point for your F21 Forecast. Traditionally, you will choose the two months that you feel replicated the most realistic approach in F20. For example, if you are forecasting Salaries & Wages, maybe you want to use November (30-day) & December (31-day) because those expenses are where you intend to start at for the beginning of the year.
5. Within the Baseline tab, you will add:

• Headers reflecting each month of the year
• Current year of expense
• Expense category name
• Use formula to bring over your selected months data into the baselines 30/31-day schedule. For my example, I would bring over Novembers salaries from the Income Statement and place it within each 30-day month and bring over Decembers salaries and place it within each 31-day month. Remember to day weight February if applicable
• Create a new tab and label it Bridge
• Your Bridge will be a summarization table showing your baseline + 3-5 additional forecasted changes that you will implement for the upcoming year (Be creative here the more thought and effort you put in the better score you will get).
• On your Bridge tab also include side notes with assumptions. Example If youre forecasting salaries and plan on increasing them; show the math (use a made-up average salary approach, etc.)

6. Create a new tab within your Excel file (starting after the Bridge tab) for each Forecasted change you created and label accordingly (example: Minimum Wage tab, Sales manager tab, Sales Rep Termination tab, etc.). From here:

• Copy in the Baseline tab into each of the 3-5 tabs you just created (forecast changes), however remove the dollar amounts and just keep the labels (months, etc.)
• Use Formulas to copy in the dollar amounts from the Bridge for each specific change on each associated tab.

7. Create a Forecast Summary tab and again copy in the Baseline labels, however remove the baseline dollar amounts.

• Within your Forecast summary tab, you will now want to add (using formulas) the Baseline + Change 1 + Change 2 + Change 3 etc. This will get you your Forecasted Month over Month summarization view. *add a check so ensure your math is correct

8. Create a new tab and label it Visual and here you will create at minimum 1 Visual to tell your story
9. Create Qualitative Analysis Report within Microsoft PowerPoint regarding your forecast. This report must include:

• Introduction
• Overview of your companys previous years performance/Income statement
• How you constructed your Baseline
• How you constructed your Bridge
• Analysis on the 3-5 Forecasted Changes you included within your bridge
• Explanation of your summary (this is where you will explain how your forecast looks in relevance to the previous year, how much more you will need to spend or how much savings you anticipate verse the income statements revenue/net income, etc.) *INCLUDE VISUALS
• Conclusion

*This presentation should last no more than 15-minutes. You will be assuming I am the CEO of your company and my time is valuable.