Le Grind Coffee Distributors Mara Comas and Javier Bianchi often tell the Le Grind Cafe customers the story of how they fell in love the first time they

literally bumped into each other at a coffee shop near their Austin, Texas campus. At that time, they were sophomores majoring in business. After

mutually apologizing to each other, they learned of their shared passion for great coffee and delicious baked goods. They described similar dreams of

developing a coffee distribution business that sold the highest quality award$-$winning organic, fair$-$trade roasted coffee beans. Their following dates were

spent finding, visiting, and evaluating as many highly rated coffee shops and bakeries as they could afford!

Fast forward ten years: After graduating and working in professional accounting for five years, Mara and Javier officially started their $"$Le Grind Coffee

Distributors" business three years ago in Austin, Texas. Their suppliers provide year$-$round organic, fair$-$trade coffee from Columbia, Ethiopia, Guatemala,

and Hawaii. Le Grind roasts and sells coffee in $5-$ and $10-$pound vacuum sealed bags so that it stays fresh and has a reliable transport and shelf life until

use. The roasting variety includes light roast, medium roast, dark roast, and expresso. Le Grind added a new coffee from Uganda in their second year. Also,

Le Grind has developed two coffee blends, a pumpkin spice seasonal product for the autumn, and a holiday spice seasonal product for year$-$end festivities.

In their first year, they built their business distributing coffee to many customers in Texas, Oklahoma, and New Mexico. During their second year, they

expanded to Louisiana and Arkansas. During their third year, the expanded further to new customers in Alabama, Mississippi, and Tennessee. They have

enjoyed continuous growth each year and are now serving many customers coffee shops, restaurants, hotels, grocery stores and corporations $($such as

accounting firms$)$ in these eight U$.$S$.$ states.

Mara and Javier are thrilled about how their accounting education prepared them for their successful business launch. However, even though they enjoy

growth in new customers and increasing sales revenues and net income each year, they are interested in performing data analysis to better understand

what is happening to their sales sales mix that could be negatively impacting their gross margin $($Gross Profit$/$Sales Revenues$),$ which has decreased $2\mathrm{.}4\%$

between $2023$ and $2025.$ Here are their summary comparative income statements from the past three years:Le Grind Comparative Income Statements

You are invited to review the data provided for the case before formulating your answers.

Click here to view the dataset.

You are asked to better understand how and why Le Grind Coffee Distributor's gross margin is decreasing from $2023-2025$ based on the data fields

CoffeeOrigin, CustomerCategory, and CustomerState.

In the first tab of an Excel workbook document a project plan to analyze the entity's gross profits. Your project plan should include both descriptive and

diagnostic objectives. Create a chart outlining the following plan sections: objective questions, data strategy, analysis strategy, risks, and controls. Label

that tab "PROJECT PLAN".

In a separate tab of the Excel workbook, analyze the data by performing your identified analysis strategies. Summarize your results.

Upload your Excel file and provide clear comments regarding the location of each analysis.Le Grind Comparative Income Statements

You are invited to review the data provided for the case before formulating your answers.

Click here to view the dataset.

You are asked to better understand how and why Le Grind Coffee Distributor's gross margin is decreasing from $2023-2025$ based on the data fields

CoffeeOrigin, CustomerCategory, and CustomerState.

In the first tab of an Excel workbook document a project plan to analyze the entity's gross profits. Your project plan should include both descriptive and

diagnostic objectives. Create a chart outlining the following plan sections: objective questions, data strategy, analysis strategy, risks, and controls. Label

that tab "PROJECT PLAN".

In a separate tab of the Excel workbook, analyze the data by performing your identified analysis strategies. Summarize your results.

Upload your Excel file and provide clear comments regarding the location of each analysis.