Cash Budget Build
A profitable business that runs out of money in the middle of the quarter. Build the cash budget in a spreadsheet, find the month it happens, and say what you would do about it.
What it is
A spreadsheet task. They build the thing rather than reading about it.
- About 45 minutes, and 8 instructions in the file itself.
- Two downloads: the task with the working blank, and the same sheet with every figure in it.
- The answers are computed by the calculator that built the file, not typed in by hand.
- Nothing to join and nothing to be online for once the file is on the machine.
Why it works
Because a formula that gives the wrong answer is an argument nobody can wave away.
- Building the table is where the method actually sticks. Reading one is not.
- Every student can change an input and watch what it does, which is the question most worth asking.
- You can walk round and see the formulas rather than the answers.
- The file goes home with them and still works.
How the class goes.
- Before5 min
Download both copies. Send the task to the room however you normally share a file.
- Set up5 min
Open the Task sheet together and read the instructions aloud.
- Build25 min
They build it. You walk round and look at formulas rather than answers.
- Compare5 min
Put the key on the board and let them check their own.
- Push5 min
Change one input live and ask what happens before anyone recalculates.
You get the answers. They get the task.
- Two files, one of them with the answers
- A Check sheet with the figures worth a glance before the class
- Who is typing numbers and who is writing formulas, which is the real mark
- A workbook with the given data and the table to complete
- Instructions on the first sheet, in the file rather than on a handout
- Their own working, which they keep
What we would tell you over tea.
- Insist on formulas rather than typed numbers. Then change an input and let the sheet prove the point.
- Open the answer key before the class, not during it.
- The last question in the file is the one worth the discussion. Leave time for it.
- It runs with the network down once the file is on the machine, which is most of why it exists.
Ready when you are.
Making an account takes a minute, and the whole library opens with it.