Future changes to the model...?

[Syst_Analyst]

Hi,

I'm getting a bit confused as to how resistant my model should be to future changes and/or further data that may be added to the spreadsheet.

1. When writing our Audit Trail for Paper 1, I've seen recommendations that we should "signpost" as to where we're doing certain calculations and where certain information may be on a worksheet. I'm unsure as to how specific I can be when specifying a location on my sheet, am I correct in saying that referencing a row or column (e.g. "row F") in my audit is good but an individual cell (e.g. "cell A5") is TOO specific? With all of this, what if data is added down the line and location of cells change - this has the potential to make much of the signposting spurious, is this okay because that Audit Trail is only really meant for reading with the particular spreadsheet file that we submit with it, rather than reading with an amended version of the spreadsheet later on?

2. When creating charts for Paper 1 or 2, how resistant do these need to be to future changes? We're not really meant to just copy paste values on to a separate worksheet and then just create a chart from that, typically the table is linked to the calculations in a previous worksheet (I'm okay with this). But we don't need to add in various IF conditions to cater for more data being added to the sheet and thus possibility of new data points that the chart could use in the future do we? This feels as if it is creating more work than it should...

Thanks for any help that can be given
(ideally before the exam on Tuesday!)

 

[Sarah Byrne]

Hi

1. Row/column references are fine if that is enough to indicate where a user can find something. Sometimes more specific references are needed (eg as a calculation is just done in a single cell) so a cell reference is fine. Use what makes sense for the situation. The audit trail needs to describe your spreadsheet rather than be future proof. That being said, if you move things around in your model, you need to make sure your audit trail reflects the final model!

2. I wouldn't include IF statements to cope for more data being added in to a chart in the future (as you say, extra work, particularly in Paper 1 as you would need to document it all in the audit trail). But, you might want to put a line in your audit trail that mentions this as an area users should be aware of in the future, so, for example, if they do add more data they'll need to extend the formulae down.

Hope this helps. Good luck for tomorrow and Wednesday
Sarah