Contents

1. Introduction:................................................................................................................................1
1.1Overview:...............................................................................................................................1
1.2Background.............................................................................................................................2
1.3Data dictionary for main data set............................................................................................2
1.4Separate data table for variable cost percentages...................................................................3
Req 1: Find and Correct Errors:.......................................................................................................4
Req 2: Calculate the variable cost and contribution margin for each policy sold.........................11
Req: 3 total the sales revenue, variable cost, and contribution margin for each Insurance Type..17
Req-4. Calculate the contribution margin ratio for each policy. Rank the Insurance Type field
from the highest contribution margin ratio to lowest contribution margin ratio. Do these rankings
agree with the rankings you found in Requirement 3? Should these two rankings always be the
same?.............................................................................................................................................24
Req 5: Calculate the contribution margin ratio for each state. Rank the states from the highest
contribution margin ratio to the lowest contribution margin ratio. Which states had a contribution
margin ratio greater than 75%?......................................................................................................27
Req 6: Within each region, what was the most profitable state in the most recent year, as
measured by the contribution margin ratio? The least most profitable state in each region?........30
1. Introduction: The data set we are going to use for this project is based on real‐life data
from a national insurance company. The main data set contains sales data for 2017. To solve this
case, we are using the data set that contains more than 65,000 insurance sales records from 2017.
We have used the Excel file provided by our instructor Md. Shafiqul Islam to analyze the data in
Power BI.

1.1Overview:
The demand for accounting graduates with data analytics skills has exploded, while the tools and
Techniques are continuing to evolve and change at a rapid pace. This case illustrates how data
analytics can be performed, using a variety of tools including Excel and Power BI.while
analyzing this case, we have learnt how to drill-down into a company’s sales and cost data to
gain a deeper understanding of the company’s sales and costs and how this information can be
used for decision-making.

1.2Background
This MSQI Insurance Corporation data set is based on real-life data from a national insurance
company. The data set contains more than 65,000 insurance sales records from 2017. All data
and names have been anonymized to preserve privacy.

General learning objectives

 Clean the data in a data set

 Analyze sales trends
 Interpret findings

Power BI learning objectives

 Import data into Power BI 

 Create calculated columns
 Use the LOOKUPVALUE function
 Format columns 
 Build a table visualization
 Format a table visualization
 Sort the data in the table
 Adjust the values field to count
 Adjust the values field to create an average
 Create a new measure
 Use visualizations filters
 Use the slicer visualization to sort data
1.3Data dictionary for main data set
 Region: This field contains the region in which the insurance was sold. There are six
regions: Midwest, New England, North Central, Northeast, Southeast, and West.
 State: This field contains the state in which the insurance policy applies. The data is from
sales to the 48 states in continental US and the District of Columbia. (MSQI Insurance
does not offer insurance in the states of Alaska and Hawaii.)
 Salesperson: This field contains the name of the salesperson who sold the policy.
 Insurance Type: This field contains the type of insurance policy.
 State Type: This field is a combination of the State and Insurance Type fields.
 Sales: This field contains the selling price of the insurance policy.
 Date of Sale: This field contains the date that the policy was sold.
 Invoice No: This field contains the invoice number.
 Country: This field contains the country in which the policy was sold. At this time, MSQI
insurance only sells policies in the US.

1.4Separate data table for variable cost percentages

 State Type: This field is a combination of the State and Insurance Type fields.
 Variable Cost Percent: This field contains the variable cost of each policy.
Req 1: Find and Correct Errors:
Step1: Click on any cell in the data in the Main worksheet.

Step2: On the Insert ribbon in Excel (across the top of the window), click on Pivot Table.

Step3: Accept the defaults to insert the pivot table in the workbook.
Step4: Before going any further, right‐click the worksheet tab and rename it as “Req 1.”
Step5: Next, populated the pivot table. In the Pivot Table Fields panel, drag “region” down to
the Rows box and “Sales” down to the Values box.

Step6: I now have a pivot table. I have examined the list of Regions to find any error(s), and two
regions are misspelled that are southeast and west that will be replaced by southeast and west
respectively.

Step7: Now we want to correct the original data set for the spelling error. Click on the Main tab
to go back to the original data.
Step8: In the Home ribbon, click on Find & Select. Then we Type the incorrect term
“sotheast”in the “Find what” box and the correct spelling “southeast” in the “Replace with” box.
Click on Replace All. Again we Type the incorrect term “west”in the “Find what” box and the
correct spelling “west” in the “Replace with” box. Click on Replace All.
Step9: Now we need to refresh the pivot table data to reflect the corrections. Go back to the Req
1 worksheet, right click within the pivot table data, and select Refresh.

You can see that the incorrect region term is no longer present in the data set

Step10: Now repeat the process for the Insurance Type field. Drag “Region” back up to the main
box and drag “Insurance Type” down to the Rows box.
Step11: Review the list of Insurance Types to find the error(s). In the Home ribbon, click on
Find & Select. Then we Type the incorrect term “Homme”in the “Find what” box and the correct
spelling “Home” in the “Replace with” box. Click on Replace All. Again, we Type the incorrect
term “professionall”in the “Find what” box and the correct spelling “professional” in the
“Replace with” box. Click on Replace All.
Once the errors are corrected and the pivot table is refreshed, we can see that the incorrect
insurance types are no longer present in the data set.

The rest of this project is in Power BI, so we started by opening Power BI.
Req 2: Calculate the variable cost and contribution margin for each
policy sold.
Step1: Click on the table mode. We deleted the “Variable Cost Percentage”, “Variable Cost”,
and “Contribution Margin” columns and created new columns.

Step2: In the field’s menu, moving the mouse to the far right corner of the “Contribution
Margin” field until we see the “…”. Clicking on the “…” and the menu opens.

Step3: Clicking on Delete.

Step4: Clicking Delete to confirm.

Step5: Completed the same process for “Variable Cost Percentage” and “Variable Cost” to
delete those columns. Given in the picture below.
Step6: To add the variable cost percentage to the Main data table, clicking on New Column.

Step7: Now making the name of the column by typing in the equation bar the following:
Variable Cost Percentage =

Step8: The variable cost percentage is in the VariableCostPct table. To get the variable cost
percentage for each sale, we will use the LOOKUPVALUE function. The formula is =
LOOKUPVALUE (VariableCostPct[Variable Cost Percent], VariableCostPct[State Type],
Main[State Type]).
Step9: Now we move on to calculate the variable cost. To do so clicking on New Column.

Step10: In the equation bar typed the following: Variable Cost = Main[Sales] * Main[Variable
Cost Percentage]

Step11: Selecting the variable cost column clicked on the column tools, as the modeling tab is
not available in my version.
Step12: Clicked on Format and then Currency. Selected the $ English (United States).

Step13: Next, we move on to calculate the contribution margin. Clicked on New Column.

Step14: In the equation bar we typed the following: Contribution Margin = Main[Sales] ‐
Main[Variable Cost]
Step15: Selecting the variable cost column clicked on the column tools

Step16: Clicked on Format and then Currency. Select the $ English (United States).

This is the final outcome of requirement 2. We have calculated the variable cost and contribution
margin for each policy sold.
Req: 3 total the sales revenue, variable cost, and contribution margin
for each Insurance Type.
A) Which Insurance Type had the highest total contribution margin
B) Which Insurance Type had the lowest total contribution margin
Step-1. Click on the Sales column.

Step-2. On the modeling tab, click on Format and then Currency. Select the $ English.

Step-3. Click on the Variable Cost Percentage column.

Step-4. On the Modeling tab, click on Format and then Percentage.

Step- 5. On the Modeling tab, change the decimal places to zero by clicking the down arrow.
Step-6. Click on Report Mode. Right‐click on Page 1, and Rename Page to Req3.

Step-7. In Visualizations, click on Table.

Step-8. In Fields, click on (in this order) Insurance Type, Sales, Variable Cost, and
Contribution Margin.
Step-9. Under visualizations, click the Format tool.

Step- 10. Click on Grid, scroll down, and adjust Text Size to 13.

Step-11. Resize the table by moving curser to the lower right corner until you see the double
arrow. Click and drag the table to the size needed.

Step-12. Click on the Contribution Margin heading to sort by total from highest to lowest.
This is the final outcome of requirement 3 A& B. we have find Which Insurance Type had
the highest total contribution margin  And Which Insurance Type had the lowest total
contribution margin.

C) How many insurance policies were sold in each Insurance Type

Step-1. Drag Sales over into the Values area.

Step-2. In values, click on the arrow next to the second Sales field.
Step-3. Select Count.

This is the final outcome of requirement 3 C. we have find how many insurance policies
were sold in each Insurance Type.
D) What is the average contribution margin per policy in each Insurance Type
Step-1. Drag Contribution Margin over into the Values area.

Step-2. In values, click on the arrow next to the second Contribution Margin field.

Step-3. Select Average.

This is the final outcome of requirement 3 D. we have find what is the average contribution
margin per policy in each Insurance Type.
Req-4. Calculate the contribution margin ratio for each policy. Rank
the Insurance Type field from the highest contribution margin ratio to
lowest contribution margin ratio. Do these rankings agree with the
rankings you found in Requirement 3? Should these two rankings always
be the same? 
Step-1. Click on Data mode.

Step-2. On the Home tab, click on New Measure.

Step-3. In the equation bar type the following: Contribution Margin Ratio = Divide ( sum
( Main[Contribution Margin] ), sum (Main[Sales])) √

Step-4. With the Contribution Margin Ratio measure selected, click on the Modeling tab.

Step-5. Click on Format and Percentage.

Step-6. On the Modeling tab, change the decimal places to zero by clicking the down arrow.

Step-7. On Report Mode, click on the “+” and Rename Page to Req4.

Step-8. In Visualizations, click on Table.

Step-9. In Fields, click on (in this order) Insurance Type and Contribution Margin Ratio.
Step-10. Click on the contribution Margin Ratio heading to sort from highest to lowest.

This is the final outcome of requirement 4. We have find contribution margin ratio for each
policy. Rank the Insurance Type field from the highest contribution margin ratio to lowest
contribution margin ratio. This ranking is not same that we found in Req3. These two
rankings not always be the same, because in Req-4, we are dividing the total of contribution
margin from the main table and dividing the total of contribution margin from the main table
by the total of sales from the main table
Req 5: Calculate the contribution margin ratio for each state. Rank the states from the highest
contribution margin ratio to the lowest contribution margin ratio. Which states had a contribution
margin ratio greater than 75%? 

For the fifth requirement, we will be analyzing the contribution margin ratio by state.

Step 1: At first, we clicked on Report Mode. Then Click on the “+” and Renamed Page to Req5. Then In
Visualizations, we clicked on Table.

Step 2: In Fields, we clicked on (in this order) State and Contribution Margin Ratio.
Step 3: Then we Clicked on the Contribution Margin Ratio heading to sort from highest to
lowest. Now the report is sorted from highest to lowest contribution margin.

Step 4: To identify with states had a contribution margin ratio greater than 75%, we will use
the filters. With the table selected, under filters, we clicked on the arrow next to
contribution margin ratio.
Then In the show items when the value is: we Selected “is greater than” and type “0.75”. Then
Apply.
Step 5: This filters the report to show only those states with a CM ratio greater than 75%.
Req 6: Within each region, what was the most profitable state in the
most recent year, as measured by the contribution margin ratio? The
least most profitable state in each region?
For the sixth requirement, we will be analyzing the contribution margin ratio of each state
within the regions.

Step 1: We Clicked on Report Mode. Then Clicked on the “+” and Renamed the Page to Req6.
Then In Visualizations, clicked on Table.

Step 2: Next in Fields, clicked on (in this order) Region, State and Contribution Margin Ratio.
Step 3: After clicking on the white space, we clicked on the Slicer visualization.
Step 4: To sort by regions, we selected regions in the field area.

Step 5: We Selected the region one by one then clicked on the Contribution Margin Ratio
column to sort by CM Ratio.
Here we can see that, within the Midwest region Midwest SD is the most profitable state and
Midwest CO is the least most profitable state is the most recent year, as measured by the
contribution margin ratio.
Here, within the New England region, New England ME is the most profitable state and New
England CT is the least most profitable state is the most recent year, as measured by the
contribution margin ratio.
Here, within the North Central region, North Central IL is the most profitable state and North
Central MN is the least most profitable state is the most recent year, as measured by the
contribution margin ratio.
Here, within the Northeast region, Northeast VA is the most profitable state and Northeast OH is
the least most profitable state is the most recent year, as measured by the contribution margin
ratio.
Here, within the Southeast region, Southeast MS is the most profitable state and Southeast AR is
the least most profitable state is the most recent year, as measured by the contribution margin
ratio.
Here, within the West region, West CA is the most profitable state and West AZ is the least most
profitable state is the most recent year, as measured by the contribution margin ratio.