Zava — Excel Copilot Training Labs

List every unique value in the Department column and group together the ones that look like the same department spelled differently.

Add a column called "Department (Clean)" that maps every Department value to a single canonical name. Treat Mktg, MARKETING, and Marketing Dept as Marketing. Treat E-commerce, eCommerce, and Ecomm as Ecommerce. Treat Store Operations, Store Ops, and STORES as Stores. Trim trailing spaces.

Highlight rows where Department or Region is blank in yellow so I can chase the GL team for the coding.

Using the cleaned Department column on GL_Actuals, create a summary table that totals Amount by Department for May 2026.

For each department in my summary, add a column with the total Budget Amount from the Budget sheet for May 2026. Then add Variance ($) = Actual - Budget, and Variance (%) = Variance / Budget.

Highlight rows where absolute Variance % is greater than 10% in red, and rows where it's between 5% and 10% in yellow.

Create a horizontal bar chart of Variance ($) by Department, sorted from most unfavorable to most favorable.

Treating today as May 8, 2026, add two columns: "Days Past Due" (days between Due Date and today, negative if not yet due) and "Aging Bucket" with values Current, 1-30, 31-60, 61-90, 90+.

Create a table showing total Balance Due by Aging Bucket. Add a percent-of-total column.

List the top 10 invoices by Balance Due that are 31 days or more past due. Show Customer, Invoice Number, Days Past Due, and Balance Due.

Which three customers have the largest total past-due balance? Show their total Balance Due and the number of past-due invoices each.

Read the variance summary by department and write a one-paragraph executive summary for the CFO. Lead with the biggest unfavorable variance, then the biggest favorable, then anything else worth flagging. Keep it under 120 words.

Write the CFO summary in four short sections: Revenue, Gross Margin, Operating Expenses, AR Risk. One short paragraph per section. Reference specific dollar amounts and percentages from the variance table.

Based on the variances and AR aging, what are the three questions the CFO is most likely to ask me, and what data should I have ready to answer them?

For each product line, add three columns: Volume Effect = (Current Units - Prior Units) * Prior Avg Price; Price Effect = (Current Avg Price - Prior Avg Price) * Current Units; FX Effect = FX Rate Change * Prior Quarter Revenue. Then add a Total Change column that equals Current Revenue - Prior Revenue and check it ties to the sum of the three effects.

For each row, calculate the difference between Total Change and (Volume Effect + Price Effect + FX Effect). Highlight any row where the difference is more than $50,000 in red — that's a sign the decomposition isn't tying out.

Build a waterfall chart showing total Prior Quarter Revenue, then a bar for Volume Effect, Price Effect, and FX Effect, ending in Current Quarter Revenue.

Write a three-sentence summary explaining the Q2 revenue movement: total dollar change, the dominant driver (volume, price, or FX), and the one product line that is the biggest outlier.

Add a 13th forecast week to the table. Use the 12-week averages for Operating Receipts, Operating Disbursements, CapEx, and Debt Service. Beginning Cash should pull from the prior week's ending cash. Recalculate the Ending Cash Balance.

Add a "Below Threshold" column that says YES whenever Ending Cash Balance is below $8,000,000. Highlight any YES row in red across the whole row.

Create a line chart of Ending Cash Balance by Week Ending. Add a horizontal reference line at $8,000,000.

For the week with the lowest ending cash balance, explain in two sentences what drove the dip. Compare its Disbursements and CapEx to the 13-week average.

Calculate Net Revenue Retention = sum of Current Quarter Revenue divided by sum of Prior Quarter Revenue, split by Channel (Wholesale vs DTC Ecommerce). Show both numbers and the ratio as a percent.

Add a column called "Health" that buckets each customer based on Current Quarter Revenue vs Prior Quarter Revenue: "Churned" if current is zero; "Contracting" if current is less than 90% of prior; "Flat" if 90-110%; "Growing" if 110-130%; "Expanding" if more than 130%.

Create a stacked bar chart showing the count of customers in each Health bucket, split by Channel.

List the top 5 churned customers (Health = "Churned") by Prior Quarter Revenue. These are our biggest at-risk dollars from last quarter.

Give me five board-level KPIs I can put on a single slide, using this workbook. For each KPI, show the value, the prior quarter comparison, and whether the trend is favorable. Cover: revenue growth, FX-neutral revenue growth, lowest forecast cash, net revenue retention, customer count change.

Write a 150-word board narrative that ties together the revenue story, the cash position, and customer health. Be direct about risks. Reference specific numbers from the workbook.

Based on these KPIs and trends, what are the four most likely questions the board will ask, and what is the best one-line answer for each?

Find every pair of rows in AP_Transactions where the Vendor Name and Amount are identical and the Invoice Date is within 7 days of each other. List both Invoice Numbers, the Vendor, the Amount, and the date gap.

Sum the total dollars of the duplicate pairs you found. If we paid both invoices in each pair, what's our maximum overpayment exposure?

Highlight all duplicate rows in AP_Transactions in yellow so I can quickly find them on the source sheet.

Create a table that sums Amount by Vendor Name, sorted from largest to smallest. Add a running cumulative percent of total spend.

How many vendors make up the first 80% of total spend? List them.

=COPILOT("Categorize each vendor as Strategic (big-spend, mission-critical), Preferred (mid-spend, repeatable services), or Tail (small-spend, infrequent)", H4#)

Create a Pareto chart of total spend by vendor — bars in descending order, with a cumulative percent line overlay.

Add a column "Days to Pay" = Payment Date - Invoice Date.

Add a "Flag" column: "Suspiciously Fast" if Days to Pay is less than 15, "Suspiciously Slow" if Days to Pay is more than 50, otherwise "Normal".

List the top 10 vendors by count of "Suspiciously Fast" payments. For each, show the average Days to Pay and the total dollar amount paid fast.

Same analysis for "Suspiciously Slow" — top 10 vendors by count, average Days to Pay, total amount.

If we assume a 2% early-payment discount was available on every "Suspiciously Fast" payment but we paid before claiming it, estimate the dollar amount we left on the table.

Write a one-page findings memo to the Controller covering four sections: Duplicate Invoices (count, dollar exposure), Vendor Concentration (top vendors as % of spend, consolidation opportunity), Payment Timing (count and dollars paid fast / paid slow), and Estimated Savings (a single recovery range we should chase). Keep it under 400 words.

Recommend three concrete next steps the Controller should take based on these findings. Each one should have an owner, an ETA, and the expected dollar impact.

Read your own findings memo back and flag any claim that isn't directly supported by a row or summary in the workbook. Rewrite each flagged sentence so it stays defensible.

You are my FP&A partner for Edgewell Personal Care. We are closing Q2 FY26 and I need to walk the CFO through the variance story and the open close risks tomorrow morning.

STEP 1 — ANALYZE
Read EDG_Finance_Performance.xlsx and build a Q2 FY26 variance read:
• Compare Actual vs Budget by department and by month for Q2 FY26 (Jan–Mar 2026 calendar / fiscal Q2).
• Identify the top 5 favorable and top 5 unfavorable variances in absolute dollars AND as a % of plan.
• Call out anything that crosses ±10% vs plan or ±$500K in absolute terms.
• Map variances back to the named drivers in the file (Wet Shave NA volume, Banana Boat recall echo, Cuautitlan attrition, A&P over plan, Billie CAC, productivity savings).
• Flag the three highest-risk items on the open close-task list.

STEP 2 — OUTPUTS (produce all four)
1. EDG_Finance_VarianceDashboard.xlsx — a clean variance workbook with: a summary tab (Actual / Budget / Variance $ / Variance % by department), a drivers tab tying the largest variances to root causes, and a close-risk tab listing the three highest-risk open tasks with owner, ETA, and impact.
2. EDG_Finance_CFO_Brief.docx — a 2-page memo for the CFO: TL;DR up top, Revenue read, Gross Margin read, Operating Expense read, Close-Risk section, and a Recommendation paragraph.
3. EDG_Finance_QBR_Deck.pptx — a 6–8 slide deck for the quarterly business review: title, Q2 headline, segment view (Wet Shave / Sun & Skin Care / Feminine Care / DTC), GM bridge (materials inflation vs productivity), A&P and CAC slide, close-risk slide, ask/recommendation.
4. EDG_Finance_Dashboard.html — a single-page HTML KPI summary the team can open in a browser: top metrics tiles, the segment variance chart, and the three close-risk items.

STEP 3 — TALK TRACK
At the end, give me a 60–120 second executive talk track I can use to open the CFO meeting. Lead with YTD top line, then the Sun & Skin Care NA swing (12–18% below plan), then the GM story (195 bps materials inflation offset by ~380 bps productivity), then the A&P 80 bps over plan, then the three highest-risk close tasks. Keep it crisp.

Rules:
• Only use numbers and drivers that are in the attached file. If something isn't in the data, mark it [ASSUMPTION] in the deliverable.
• Don't invent customer names, contract values, or forecast numbers.
• Where you make a judgment call, say so in one line and explain why.

Using the Q2 actuals and the named drivers, build a Q3 FY26 forecast scenario with three cases (low / base / high). Assume Sun & Skin Care NA recovers 30% / 50% / 70% of the gap, Cuautitlan attrition stabilizes by mid-Q3, and A&P holds at the current run rate. Show segment revenue, GM%, and Adjusted EBITDA for each case.

Write a one-page close-risk memo to the Controller covering only the three highest-risk open close tasks. For each: what the risk is, the dollar exposure range, the owner, and the recommended path to resolution before we lock the books.