A few weeks back in the Chandoo.org Forum Melvin asked about Apportioning Sales based on Division and Status to the current sales by store.
Today we will examine how this works and how to develop a solution for the problem.
Apportion/ing
Apportion means to assign or distribute.
In a court the Judge may apportion blame for an accident eg: 50% to the driver, 30% to mechanical failure and 20% to the road conditions, The Judge is assigning or distributing the blame as he deams appropriate.
This is what Melvin wanted to do with his sales. He wanted the sales distributed according to Division and Status based on the current sale by store.
Lets start simple and look at how we can distribute sales on a simple model first.
Let say we have a Distributorship and we buy and sell oranges.
We buy oranges from a supplier and distribute them to 3 stores, Store A, Store B & Store C
We received 1,000 oranges and they were sold as follows
We can see that each store received differing percentages of the original supply:
50% = 500/1000
30% = 300/1000
etc
A week later the supplier give us another 200 oranges and we want to distribute them based on the previous sales
So the new batch of 200 oranges will be distributed according to these previous percentages
100 = 200 x 50%
60 = 200 x 30%
etc
That is as simple and as complicated as apportioning is.
Melvin’s Problem
When we look at Melvin’s problem he has a more complex set of data
You can follow along using a sample file: Download Sample File
We can see that Melvin has 14 stores located in 4 Divisions (N, S, W & C) and each can have a status of Open or Open1
But if we simplify this and look at one set of data we can devise a formula which will adjust to each set of data
Lets develop a formula for cell F11 which is dealing with Store 1 in the N Division and has a Status of Open
We see it has sales of 100 (Cell E11)
Total sales of Division N and status Open are 600 (100+100+100+150+150) highlighted below (Lower table)
Looking at the Upper Table we can see that we need to distribute 200 units based on the Division N and Status Open (Cell C4)
So we need to distribute 200 units across the 5 stores with Total sales of 600
We know that Store 1. had sales of 100 in cell E11
The Total Sales of Stores in Division N and Status Open can be obtained using a Sumifs function
=SUMIFS($E$11:$E$24, C11:$C$24, $C$11, $D$11:$D$24, D11)
=600
So the proportion of Store 1’s sales 100 to Total Sales ( Division N and Status Open ) 600 is 100/600 = 16.66%
This is calculated by
=E11/SUMIFS($E$11:$E$24, $C$11:$C$24, C11, $D$11:$D$24, D11)
=0.1667
=16.67%
Note: We leave the references to C11, D11 & E11 variable, so that when the formula is copied down it will refer to the next row
We can use an index/match formula to get the 200 based on the criteria from row 11
=INDEX($C$4:$D$7, MATCH(D11,$B$4:$B$7,0), MATCH(C11,$C$3:$D$3,0))
What this is doing is doing a 2D Lookup in the Range $C$4:$D$7
It is looking up the Division Row no. MATCH(D11,$B$4:$B$7,0)
and looking in the Status Column No. MATCH(C11,$C$3:$D$3,0)
Note: Once again we leave the references to C11 & D11 variable, so that when the formula is copied down it will refer to the next row
So the proportion of the 200 sales attributable to Store 1 is:
=Distribution Qty * Actual Sales / Total Sales
=INDEX($C$4:$D$7, MATCH(D11, $B$4:$B$7, 0), MATCH(C11, $C$3:$D$3, 0)) * E11 / SUMIFS($E$11:$E$24, $C$11:$C$24, C11, $D$11:$D$24, D11)
= 33.33
We can now copy this down to all the cells matching our criteria of Division N and Status Open
Notice that the total matches the total to be distributed 200 showing that the formula is working
Although we copied the formula down to the cells that had matching criteria each part of the formula was setup to work on the appropriate criteria for the store in the current row
If we now copy F11 down to the other stores you will see that in fact all the stores sales have been apportioned according to the correct criteria.
eg: If we look at Stores 7, 8 & 9 we can see that they are in the W Division and have a Status of Open1
The distributed Proportions are each 16.67, totaling 50, which matches the distribution in the Upper table.
You may also notice that Division C has not been accounted for.
I assume that Melvin has sent us a subset of the data and that is why it is missing.
Download
You can download a copy of the above file and follow along, Download Sample File.
A Challenge
Can you solve the problem another way ?
Post your solutions in the comments below.
Other Posts in this Series
The Formula Forensics Series contains a wealth of useful solutions and information specifically about how Normal Formula and specifically Array Formula work.
You can learn more about how to pull Excel Formulas apart in the following posts: http://chandoo.org/wp/formula-forensics-homepage/
If you have a formula and you want to understand how it works contact Hui and it may be featured in future posts.
25 Responses to “Display Alerts in Dashboards to Grab User Attention [Quick Tip]”
I prefer the red,grey,light grey,black icon set. I've also used in-cell pie charts from Fabrice's Sparklines for Excel as an alert which could also provide another piece of information.
I prefer the red,grey,light grey,black icon set. I've also used in-cell pie charts from Fabrice's Sparklines for Excel as an alert which can also provide another piece of information.
For Excel 2007, your formula should do the same as the Excel 2003 version, so that non-alert rows are blank - if they are 0, the unnecessary green icon will show
Hi Chandoo,
Nice Post !! just to add something for EXL 2003, we can also 4 Ifs and link to the alert data
For Ex: If we have alert data in Cell A2 and want to split in 4 orders namely <25%, 25-50%, 50-75% and 75%< then we can following formula and put fonts as you have suggested :
=IF(A2<0.25,CHAR(153),IF(A2<=0.5,CHAR(155),IF(A2=0.76,CHAR(152)))))
And then using Conditional Formating we can dashboard reflected on different COLOURS as per their respective alert.
Best Regards
Rohit1409
Hi Chandoo,
Nice Post !!! just to add something for EXL 2003, we can also 4 Ifs and link to the alert data
For Ex: If we have alert data in Cell A2 and want to split in 4 orders namely <25%, 25-50%, 50-75% and 75%< then we can following formula and put fonts as you have suggested :
=IF(A2<0.25,CHAR(153),IF(A2<=0.5,CHAR(155),IF(A2=0.76,CHAR(152)))))
And then using Conditional Formating we can dashboard reflected on different COLOURS as per their respective alert.
Best Regards
Rohit1409
The Complete formula [Don't Know how it got cut ]
=IF(A2<0.25,CHAR(153),IF(A2<=0.5,CHAR(155),IF(A2=0.76,CHAR(152)))))
PS : Use in single line [I have split it to avoid cuts 😉 ]
Hi Chandoo..
why it is not displaying the complete formula..
anyways here is the balance
"=IF(A2<0.25,CHAR(153), IF(A2<=0.5,CHAR(155), IF(A2=0.76,CHAR(152)))))"
@Rohit... your formulas are fine. Just that the width of comment area is fixed and hence my website is cropping it at 640pixels. I just edited your formula and added few white spaces so that it wraps nicely.
Very good idea btw.. kudos!
Hi,
Maybe just go for 'bold' ; 'underline' or 'italic' to draw the users attention? Those methods (if those can be called methods) are used cross media type (books, journals, blogs, billboards, ...) to guide the readers eye to valuable information.
Just a basic thought
@Tom.. good idea..
[...] has a very nice writeup on how to add such alerts to dashboard sheets. Possibly related posts: (automatically generated)Divide your data set into workbooksHow to enforce [...]
Hi Chandoo,
You certainly grabbed my attention! although I wasn't sure what my brother (Suresh) and cousin (Shyam) were doing right, and I was doing wrong? 😉
I love your blog btw - Many thanks for all your hard work in unravelling the secrets and mysteries of Excel!
Best regards
Ramesh
I thought I saw an advertisment for a book about learning excel called excel himalaya or something. It cost about 35.00 us money but seemed to have the things I need to have my admin assistant to start to use. I was hoping to start with this book and then send her to school if she shows some interest and aptitude. Any help on this would be appreciated. Thanks
Great web site and information!!!!
@Jeff... checkout http://chandoo.org/wp/2010/08/25/excel-everest-review/
thanks, your website is awesome!
[...] Alerts to highlight focus areas [...]
[...] There are lots of numbers in this dashboard. I would suggest adding few more visualizations like showing indicators or applying conditional formatting or replacing a table with a chart. This would reduce the [...]
[...] is the same technique as alert icons in dashboard. Just that I also showed green [...]
[...] is the same technique as alert icons in dashboard. Just that I also showed green [...]
Hi Chandoo
Firstly thanks for all the cool tips on how to use Excel better.
I am new to the site and have a question which you may be able to assist with but dont know if these comment boxes are the best way of asking ?
I am looking at assets and trying to calculate the depreciation total by taking a year (say 2010) adding the expected life of the asset (say 10 years) then comparing that to a future date (say 2015) using an IF statement. The calculation in normal is - IF((year in col B (2010) plus 10years)>year 2015, add a years depreciation, otherwise leave blank). The converted date value does not appear able to add 10 years in order to compare it to 2015. Am I missing something ?
I use the “IF” Statement in conjunction with Conditional Formatting in MS Excel to give verbiage to alert one of a required action, dependant on a review date. This makes a visual stimulus, plus it clues one as to what the conditional format is trying to warn you about and what follow-up actions are required.
Wow, I'm really impressed with dashboards. I had no idea this stuff was even possible with excel. I'd like to offer an interactive dashboard to my customers, showing analytics of their data. I have a .pdf file with the datapoints. I'd like them to enter the data on my website, and be able to see their data. Is something like that possible.
Hi Chandoo,
I've recently purchased the package for both templates.
In the portfolio dashboard,under the calculations worksheet, I'm attempting to change the date range in the gantt chart to show only the range of the project that starts in late 2013. How do I do this?
Thanks
Adam
[...] is the same technique as alert icons in dashboard. Just that I also showed green [...]
Hi Chandoo,
I'm new at Excel Dashboard and found your blog really useful and helpful! It's very nice of you that you dedicate your time to do this.
Could you please explain how can I use Alerts based on dates on a Dashboar?
For example, if a target date is coming closer to the actual date, the alert is yellow or red.
I'd really appreciate some help!
Thank you
Where can I download the file Excel of Averall Statistics ???
Thanks a lot.