What the Fundamental Case Study Pre-Populated Spreadsheets Told You in March and June 2026
In both the March and June 2026 sittings, the pre-populated spreadsheet followed the Advance Information closely enough to be worth studying weeks before the exam.
What was in them
In March, Teakmore's spreadsheet had two sheets. The first held a proforma statement of profit or loss for the year ended 28 February 2026, laid out line for line like the prior year statement printed in the Advance Information: revenue, cost of sales, gross profit, administrative expenses, distribution costs, operating profit, income tax, profit for the year. The second held the Tabicha pricing and cost data promised in the exam paper, ready for the breakeven, margin of safety and profit calculations that the Advance Information had already hinted at when it said Kelly wanted to know whether the product would break even in its first year.
June's Alto spreadsheet also had two working sheets, each with a locked backup copy alongside. The first gave the Manchester labour data: standard rates of £19.00 and £14.50 per hour, standard person hours per day of 56 and 80, and actual hours and costs of 1,388 hours at £27,691 and 2,395 hours at £36,997. The second was a blank statement of financial position proforma, again mirroring the prior year layout in the Advance Information, right down to the deferred income line.
What to take from it
The expected part is the proformas. Both sittings handed you a skeleton that matched the Advance Information, which means you could have practised filling one in weeks earlier. If your figures do not fit the headings provided, something has gone wrong somewhere upstream.
The surprise sits in the detail of the June data. You were given standard hours per day, not for the four-week period, so the efficiency variance only worked if you multiplied by 28 days first. The examiners confirmed this was the most common error on that requirement, and it cost marks on a calculation that candidates otherwise handled well.
March contained a comparable trap: the breakeven volume of 2,926.83 units had to be rounded up to a whole product before the margin of safety made sense (since you can’t make 0.83 of physical product!), and candidates who left the decimal in place gave away easy marks.
Both sittings also warned that the spreadsheet might contain formulae, and June supplied a backup sheet that could be copied but not edited. Treat that as a hint about method. Check what is calculated and what is hard-coded before building on top of it, and leave the original data intact so you can start again if a working goes wrong.
Two habits follow from all this.
First, practise with the published spreadsheets rather than a blank page, because ICAEW releases a completed version after each sitting that you can mark yourself against.
Second, remember that only the answer area is marked. Workings left sitting in the spreadsheet area earn nothing at all unless you copy them across, and every sitting produces candidates who forget.