Literature Resurrection is a small second-hand book shop, run by a team of three staff members: Amy, Blanche, and Celeste.

Hours of operation Most of the time, each team member works separate shifts: Amy works 9:00 AM to 12:30 PM, Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday; Blanche works 9:00 AM to 12:30 PM, Thursday, Friday and Saturday; and Celeste works 12:30 PM to 5:30 PM, Monday to Friday. The shop runs from 9:00 AM to 5:30 PM each day, except Saturday when it closes at 12:30. It is closed entirely on Sundays.

Costs Amy and Blanche are the semi-retired co-owners of the bookshop, and do not take a salary. Celeste, however, is a part-time employee, with total employment costs of $22 per hour. Celeste is also entitled to four weeks of paid annual leave, during which a casual replacement is required at a cost of $33 per hour. Fixed costs such as rent and insurance are $2900 per year, and utilities costs are $140 per month.

Task 1 – Costs of operating the business Using Excel, create a spreadsheet called operating_costs.xlsx that calculates the projected annual outgoing costs of running Literature Resurrection. Your spreadsheet should be configured such that the working hours, hourly rates, and fixed and utility costs can be varied easily. Document your findings (approximately 100 words).

Obtaining Books Throughout the day, customers come to Literature Resurrection to buy books, and occasionally to sell them. When people bring in books to sell to Literature Resurrection, the staff member on duty will review the books and make an offer for each one individually.

Currently, the process for determining how much the book shop will pay for a book is entirely subjective. Staff members offer an amount per book based on the quality of the book, and how popular they think it is, and how they are feeling at the time. The sale amount is always simply double the amount paid and is set at the same time – if Literature Resurrection pays $3.00 for a book, they will put it on sale with a marked price of $6.00. (Literature Resurrection does not deal in rare or antique books) For several months, staff have been keeping track of the date and time, quality, publication year and amount paid for each book in a spreadsheet.

Task 2 – Sales team offers Using Excel, process the history of purchases spreadsheet and use appropriate charts to visualize: How the prices paid differed for each staff member; and How the prices paid have changed over time Describe your findings (approximately 250 words), and attach the Excel file to your page. 

Process automation Amy and Blanche want to improve the consistency of how they pay for and price books. They’d like to standardize on three standard price offers, and have designed the following process to determine how to allocate them, including the option of rejecting the book altogether.

The staff have already agreed on how to determine whether a book is terrible, poor, or good

Task 3 – Automation Using Excel, create a spreadsheet page that automates the above process, allowing a member of the team to enter whether the book is hardcover, its publication year, and its condition, and receive a price to offer. Your spreadsheet should be configured such that the Low, Medium and High prices can be varied easily. Describe how you automated the process (approx 150 words),

. Task 4 – Price setting Using Excel and the historical data you have available, determine sets of prices which meet the objectives of the following scenarios:

Scenario one: Total offer prices are approximately the same as for the historical data

Scenario two: Assuming all books purchased are sold, allow all staff to draw the same wage as Celeste.

Describe the strategy you used to find appropriate prices for each scenario (approximately 150 words). Ensure that the Low price is less than the Medium price, and both are less than the High price.