Analytical Task

Introduction:

The objective of this task is to test your ability to think logically and your competency
with spreadsheet analysis.

The only output required from this task is the spreadsheet that you have used to arrive at the
answers to the questions below - you are not expected to create any slides or other content.

We will be assessing both the accuracy of the answer that you reach and the
clarity/structure of the analysis that supports this.

Overview:

We would like you to create a Revenue forecast for FY18 and FY19 for ‘Self Serve’
merchants, based on our data.

‘Self Serve’ merchants are merchants who sign up to our services via Partners (e.g. Xero) or
via our website. After signing up, they do not require any further Sales effort to activate (i.e.,
start using our system to process payments).

We would like the following outputs, by month, from January 2017 to December 2019:

• £ Monthly Recurring Revenue (MRR)

o Existing Merchants (sign-up before January 2018)
o New Merchants (sign-up on or after January 2018)
• # of Monthly Active Merchants
o Existing Merchants (sign-up before January 2018)
o New Merchants (sign-up on or after January 2018)

Data provided (attached Excel):

• Self Serve merchant count: Number of active ‘Self Serve’ merchants per month,
split by month of sign-up (e.g., Cell B2 says that there were 12 active merchants who
signed up in October 2011, which rose to 42 in November 2011)
• Self-Serve Revenue: Total Monthly Recurring Revenue (MRR) split by month of
sign-up (e.g., cell B2 says that merchants who signed up in October 2011 contributed
£3 in MRR in October 2011, which rose to £27 in November 2011)
• Historic sign-ups: Total number of sign-ups per month from Oct 2011 to Dec 2017
• Forecasted sign-ups: Forecasted sign-ups to December 2019

Key tasks:

• Build activation (%) and Average Revenue per Merchant (£) profiles for each monthly
cohort, based on historical data provided
• Forecast the activation (%) and ARPM profiles by cohort until end 2019
• Forecast the total Active Merchants and Revenue we expect until the end of
2019, including both Existing and New merchants