Flat analysis CSV
24 joined records with calculated revenue, cost and profit. Works in Excel, Tableau and Power BI.
Public downloadOpen practice
Your first checked sales analysis.
Use a small fictional TrailPeak dataset to calculate recorded sales, compare categories, and explain one finding. No sign-in is required. Allow 30–45 minutes.
Download the practice files
TrailPeak is fictional practice data. One Orders row is an order record. Product prices and costs live in Products; store region lives in Stores. The returned flag does not specify a refund amount, so the calculations below describe recorded sales before a separately modeled refund adjustment.
1. Inspect and calculate in Excel
- Open the CSV through Excel’s Data import if a double-click puts everything in one column. Confirm dates, units, prices and discounts use the right types.
- Count 24 order records. Inspect the headers and choose one row to explain in plain language.
- Calculate revenue as Units × Unit_Price × (1 − Discount). Discount 0.05 means 5%, not 5.
- Calculate cost as Units × Unit_Cost, then profit as Revenue − Cost.
- Summarize revenue and profit by Category in a PivotTable. Compare the grand totals with the checks below.
- Write one finding supported by a number and one limitation of the data.
2. Ask the same questions with SQL
- Open the SQLite database in a SQLite-compatible editor. Inspect Orders, Products and Stores.
- Open the worked SQL file and run one SELECT at a time.
- Explain the join keys: Order Product_ID matches Products Product_ID; Order Store_ID matches Stores Store_ID.
- Check that the join returns 24 rows and 24 distinct orders. A working query can still duplicate records.
- Compare the grouped category total with Excel. Save the query and its business question.
SELECT COUNT(*) AS Order_Rows,
COUNT(DISTINCT Order_ID) AS Distinct_Orders
FROM Orders;3. Explain the result visually
Connect Tableau or Power BI to the flat CSV. Use one bar chart of revenue by Category, one of profit by Category, and a Channel filter. Add a title that names the question and the period covered by the file. Reconcile totals before formatting.
Check the question: Revenue ranks sales volume in dollars; profit ranks the difference between recorded revenue and cost. They can support different decisions. This small practice file does not establish demand forecasts or causal effects.
4. Verify and explain
| Check | Expected result |
|---|---|
| Order records and distinct order IDs | 24 and 24 |
| Units | 102 |
| Recorded revenue | $10,869.55 |
| Recorded cost | $5,707.00 |
| Recorded profit | $5,162.55 |
Submission or portfolio note
Keep the input file, formulas or query, one chart, the reconciled totals, and a short claim with its limitation. If you use AI, record the prompt, the part you accepted, and how you checked it. Never upload confidential student or company data to an unapproved tool.
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