Computer Support for Business Decisions

The impact of decisions taken in the organisation is crucial for the success of business projects. Each of them should be well thought out and supported by a proper analysis. Therefore, the course program focuses on the introduction of a participant into selected issues related to the decision-making processes of the organisation, as well as their support through selected applications of spreadsheets. The student will learn about their key functions and other tools and learn to use them in practice. The issues addressed, inter alia, concern financial processes in the enterprise as well as other issues related to its activities. The course participant will learn to independently handle business data, perform uncomplicated analyses, prepare reports, and use the results of activities performed in the process of taking business decisions.

Preliminary requirements

Course participants should know and understand the basic concepts of corporate finance, accounting and financial reporting. It is also important to use selected mathematics and statistics issues. In addition, knowledge of the basics for using the computer and knowledge of English is required. Moreover, the trainee should have a computer with an Internet browser, as well as a free Google account, due to the fact that during the course exercises will be carried out on the basis of a free Google Sheets spreadsheet. Sufficient time must also be given to oneself, as the implementation of the program requires about 6 hours of work a week.

Course objectives

• Main objective:
  

  General objective of the course – acquisition of knowledge and practical skills in the field of application of spreadsheets, in the context of data treatment, for business decision-making purposes.

•  Detailed objectives:

  Purpose of Module 1 – acquisition of knowledge of selected decision-making issues in organisations.

  Purpose of Module 2 – acquisition of knowledge about the genesis of spreadsheets, their role in decision-making processes, the Google Sheets interface, as well as acquisition of elementary skills in data input and cell formatting.

  Purpose of Module 3 – acquisition of data, formulas entry skills, application of key operators, building relative and absolute references, and copying and transferring formulas.

  Purpose of Module 4 – acquisition of skills in the application of the functions of spreadsheets.

  Purpose of Module 5 – preparing a participant to carry out operations on his/her own on text and dates.

  Purpose of Module 6 – the purpose of the module is to acquire practical skills for nesting and using key logical functions.

Issues discussed

Module 1

Decisions in the enterprise

Module 2

Spreadsheets – introduction

Module 3

Elementary use of spreadsheets

Module 4

Functions

Module 5

Operations on text and dates

Module 6

Logical functions

Conditions which must be fulfilled to get a pass

The course ends in a final examination which consists of 30 closed questions testing knowledge and skills. Providing correct answers to the questions allows to obtain 100% of the points necessary to pass the course. It should be remembered that a pass is obtained when the Participant scores at least 51% of points from the final examination. At the end of each lesson, there is a mini-test that will allow the participant to independently verify the acquired knowledge. It should be noted that they are not components of the examination of the course. In addition, each module has been completed by a checklist to assist the participant of the course in structuring the learnt issues.

Conditions for obtaining the certificate

To obtain a course completion certificate, at least 51% of correct answers in the final test must be obtained. The certificate of completion of the course will be generated automatically after exceeding the credit threshold and can be found in the "My Courses" tab.

Course staff

Author of the course: Michał Bzunek, PhD mbzunek@zpsb.pl

I am a practitioner – on a daily basis, I am involved in the performance of tasks in the area of data analysis and data science. My experience has a significant impact on my teaching activities. Thanks to this, I know how to help my students develop analytical skills - effectively break down each problem into the prime factors, find individual analogies and create efficient solutions. I have many years of experience in scientific and educational work. My interests include business finance and business, economic, financial analyses and other related issues. I have been very committed to the classes in both Polish and English.