We encourage you to begin this tutorial immediately after you have finished reading from Managing by the Numbers about SOHO's Year 4 Business as Usual (page 169) and have purchased the software (you can look at the demonstration for the software).

We will coach you through making a few changes in The Financial Scoreboard (FSB) Year 4 so that you end with SOHO Year 4 Proactive, which you can then compare (identically) to the book (page 171). Next, we will have you create and print a FSB for the first year with a company you are trying to better manage. Then, we will have you add and print a second and a third year. Finally, you will print and analyze a 3-year trend table.

Note: For readers of Managing by the Numbers, you can view a corrected version of the FSB, SOHO Year 3 on page 176.

To start, open the file we sent you, and immediately resave as PROACTIVE.

Next find the sheet named SOHO BAU. Notice that as you scroll down you will pass YEAR 1, YEAR 2 and YEAR 3. When you get to YEAR 4, stop and compare this information with the identical information from page 169, in the book for "Business as Usual."

Next change YEAR 4 information to "Proactive," as shown on page 171 in the book. First just change COGS on the Income Statement, from 740 to 728. Then change Ending Balance Sheet (Cash = 115; Accounts Receivable = 82; Inventory = 161; Retained Earnings = 26). As a result, YEAR 4 should totally agree with page 171, even though the template did most of the figuring.

You have just used FSB for "what-iffing." Was this easy or what?