Excel workbook audit and review
Slow, fragile, or inherited workbooks get a ranked list of what is wrong and what it will take to fix. We work on a copy and leave a plain-English map of every sheet. See Excel troubleshooting.
Microsoft Excel Consulting
Hire a Microsoft Excel Consultant: Fix, Automate, and Connect the Workbooks You Run On
Slow files, broken macros, reports rebuilt by hand every Monday. Our Excel consultants review your real workbook first, give you a written plan and a fixed-scope price, and can do the work if you want one team from start to finish.
Call us at +1 (385) 386-3860
Fixed-scope project estimates based on the business value we deliver. Projects typically start at $1,200 - smaller fixes can be less, larger systems more.
We look first, then quoteWritten fixed-scope priceNDA on requestSince 2011 · US, UK, Canada
Quick answer: a Microsoft Excel consultant reviews the spreadsheets your business runs on, then fixes, automates, connects, or rebuilds them under a written fixed-scope quote. Excel Access Expert has delivered Excel and Access consulting since 2011. You start with a free 15-minute call; we work on a copy of your files and quote a fixed price before billable work—typically from $1,200. Repair, extend, or move the data to Access or SQL Server when Excel is the wrong backend.
Hire an Excel consultant: the facts at a glance
| Topic | Answer |
|---|---|
| Who we are | Excel Access Expert: Microsoft Excel and Access specialists since 2011 (15+ years) |
| What we do | Workbook audits, VBA macros, Power Query reporting, dashboards, Excel integrations with SharePoint, SQL Server, Access, CRM, ERP, and APIs, and Excel-to-database migrations |
| First step | Free 15-minute consultation, then a written fixed-scope quote |
| Pricing model | Fixed-scope project price, typically from $1,200, quoted in writing before billable work |
| Typical timeline | Small fixes in days; multi-workbook reporting packs or system connections in weeks |
| How we work | Remotely, on a copy of your files, under an NDA if you want one |
| Who we serve | Businesses in the US, UK, and Canada |
| Typical reply time | promptly |
Excel consulting services: what you can hire us for
Six kinds of work we take on every week. Each one starts with a written scope before you pay for hours.
Excel VBA and macro consulting
New macros, repairs for ones that broke after an Office update, and documentation so more than one person can run them. Month-end steps, report generation, and data imports are the usual jobs. See Excel data integration and automation.
Excel dashboard consulting and reporting
Leaders want a view they can trust without a weekly rebuild. We set up dashboards and reporting packs that pull from structured sources, so numbers update instead of getting pasted. See Excel dashboard development.
Excel integrations with SQL, Access, SharePoint, and APIs
Connect Excel to the systems you already use, or keep Excel as the report and move the official data into a database. See Excel-to-database solutions.
New Excel spreadsheet from scratch
One workbook the team will actually use, built around how your office already works: data entry, reports, and the steps still done by hand. See custom Excel spreadsheet design.
Emergency fixes
The file will not open, it freezes when two people use it, or an Office update broke the macros overnight. We work on a copy so the original stays safe and get the team working again. See Excel file repair.
Signs it is time to hire an Excel consultant
Only one person understands the workbook, and everyone is nervous when they are on holiday.
Someone pastes the same export into the same file every Monday.
The file takes minutes to open, freezes when you type, or crashes when two people use it.
Macros stopped working after an Office update or on a new computer.
Numbers in the dashboard and the finance report do not agree, and nobody knows which is right.
The spreadsheet has quietly become the company system of record.
The person who built the workbook has left and nobody dares change it.
Excel consultant, Excel expert, or Excel developer?
The titles overlap, and people search for all three. An Excel expert knows the tool very well. An Excel consultant works out what the business needs from it and writes the plan. An Excel developer builds it, usually with VBA, Power Query, or links to other systems. You can hire us for the plan, the build, or both.
Fixed-scope Excel consultant vs freelancer vs in-house analyst
This page is the hiring hub for fixed-scope Excel consulting. We own the diagnosis and the written quote. Marketplace freelance listings suit small, already-scoped jobs when you can vet the person yourself; they are not a substitute for a consultant when the workbook is business-critical or the path is unclear.
| What you need | Fixed-scope consultant (us) | Marketplace freelancer | In-house analyst |
|---|---|---|---|
| Written scope and fixed price | Yes, before billable work | Often hourly or open-ended | Salary, not per project |
| Review of your live workbooks first | Yes, on a copy | Often works from a short brief | Yes |
| Advice to leave Excel when it is the wrong tool | Yes, including Access and SQL options | Rarely part of the job | Depends on skills |
| Documentation others can follow | Included | Ask up front | Often lives in one head |
| Best for | Business-critical fixes, automation, and rebuilds with a plan | Small, already-scoped tasks | Daily reporting and upkeep |
How to hire an Excel consultant: 6 questions to ask first
Whoever you hire, ask these before you share a file or sign anything. A good consultant answers each one plainly and in writing.
Will you review my real workbook before quoting, or quote from a short description?
Is the price fixed and written down before billable work starts, or is it hourly and open-ended?
Can you show finished projects similar to mine, with results I can check?
Will you sign an NDA, and will you work on a copy of my files?
What documentation will my team get, so we are not dependent on you afterwards?
Will you tell me if Excel is the wrong tool and the data belongs in Access or SQL Server?
What you get from an Excel consulting engagement
The deliverable is a decision you can act on, not a pile of technical notes. Every engagement produces the same core outputs, whether or not you also hire us to build.
A written scope, timeline, and fixed price before billable work starts.
An assessment of your live workbooks, done on a copy, with findings ranked by risk.
A plain-English map of what each sheet is for and where the numbers come from.
A clear recommendation: repair the workbook, extend it, or move the data to Access or SQL Server.
If you choose delivery: the fix, automation, dashboard, or integration, with comments in the code and a short hand-over.
Excel VBA consultant: macros that survive an Office update
Most macro problems come from code written for one PC and one version of Office. As your Excel VBA consultant, we rebuild the fragile parts, add error handling, and comment the code so someone else can run it. For month-end style jobs we restore Excel settings even if a step fails, name sheets explicitly instead of trusting the active sheet, and write every run to a log. More on our Excel VBA macros service, Excel VBA web scraping automation, and data integration and automation.
What a well-built macro gives your team
Failures are visible in a log instead of silent, so month-end does not stall on a mystery.
Excel is always left in a normal state, so one failed run does not leave calculation switched off.
Code is commented and sheets are named, so an Excel macro consultant is not needed for every small change.
Typical jobs: month-end close steps, report generation, data imports, and file clean-up.
Excel dashboard consulting: numbers that refresh
A dashboard is only useful if people trust it. We connect it to a source you can refresh, agree what each number means with the people who read it, and remove the weekly copy and paste. More on Excel dashboard development and BI reporting.
What a dashboard needs before it can refresh itself
One trusted source: a database, SharePoint list, or structured export, not a pasted range.
Written definitions for each measure, agreed with the people who read it.
A Power Query or database connection that loads the data the same way every time.
One refresh action, with an owner who knows what to do if it fails.
Spreadsheet consultant advice: keep Excel, or move the data?
Excel is excellent for models, analysis, and reports. It is a poor place to store the official record when many people edit at once, the file is huge, or you need an audit trail. Because we also build Access and SQL Server solutions, we can recommend the right tool instead of stretching the workbook until it fails.
| Situation | Keep in Excel | Add Access or SQL Server |
|---|---|---|
| Several people edit at once | Fine for read-only reports; risky for shared editing | Multi-user forms writing to one shared record |
| Data volume | A worksheet holds at most 1,048,576 rows | An Access file is limited to 2 GB; use SQL Server for more |
| History and permissions | Hard to see who changed what | Tables can log changes and control access |
| Related data (customers, orders, items) | Repeated copies drift apart | One table per thing, linked together |
| Analysis and charts | Excel is the best tool for this | Keep Excel as the front end that reads from the database |
The usual path when a workbook locks, crashes, or has become the unofficial company system is Excel as the report and a database as the record. See Excel-to-database solutions, converting Excel to an Access database, Excel and SQL database integration, and Excel vs Access. If a workbook feeds QuickBooks or needs AI-assisted data extraction, see QuickBooks integration and AI-powered workflow automation.
How an Excel consulting engagement works
A short call, a written quote, then a look at your real files. Building is optional.
1. Discovery call
We ask who uses the files, what hurts, how sensitive the data is, and what done looks like. This is a free 15-minute Excel consultation.
2. Scoped proposal
You get a written scope, a timeline, and a fixed price before billable work starts. No open-ended hourly bill.
3. Assessment on your real files
We review the live workbooks on a copy: why they are slow, what breaks when someone else opens them, where the numbers come from, and what happens at month-end. Findings are ranked by risk.
4. Fixed-scope delivery (optional)
If you want the same team to do the work (speed it up, automate it, build a dashboard, or connect it to another system), that is a separate written quote. You keep the findings either way.
How much does it cost to hire an Excel consultant?
We quote a fixed-scope price for a defined piece of work. Projects typically start at $1,200. You get the number in writing before billable work—no open-ended hourly freelance bill. See our pricing page for how quotes work.
| Model | How you pay | Watch out for |
|---|---|---|
| Hourly freelance | Rate times hours worked | Final bill is unknown until the work ends |
| Fixed-scope consulting (our model) | One written price per defined project, typically from $1,200 | Scope must be written down; changes are re-quoted |
| In-house hire | Salary and benefits | One person becomes the single point of failure |
What moves the price
How many workbooks are involved and how tangled they are
Whether macros already exist and need repair or a rewrite
How many outside data sources the file has to pull from
How much documentation and hand-over training you want
Results our clients have seen
Claims without proof do not help you decide. These are documented projects on this site:
- Month-end close Excel VBA automation: repetitive close steps turned into a controlled process, with notes so finance can run it without waiting on one person.
- Finance Excel dashboard automation: executive views that refresh from structured sources instead of a weekly rebuild.
- Excel API and CRM sync automation: operational data moves in and out without manual exports.
How we keep the spreadsheet from becoming a problem again
A workbook that lasts is not luck. It is set up for a team, not for one person at a desk.
We stop the file from recalculating the world every time someone types. Slow spreadsheets usually have too much hidden work, not too little Excel skill.
Shared files get a layout people can follow. The next person should not need a walkthrough from the original author.
Macros that only work on one PC get fixed so an Office update does not take the team down overnight.
Reporting pulls from a source you can refresh, not a paste from last Monday.
When something fails, there is a note of what changed, so nobody is reverse-engineering a mystery.
You get a plain-English map of what each sheet is for, plus comments in the automation.
Who this consulting engagement is for
Finance, operations, and owners who depend on shared Excel files to close the week
Teams losing hours to merges, pastes, and macros that only one person can run
Leaders who want a written plan and a fixed quote before a rebuild
Not the right fit if you
Only need a beginner Excel tutorial
Want an open-ended hourly retainer with no written scope
Need a full ERP replacement (we will say so and point you elsewhere)
Why teams hire us as their Excel consultant
You get a decision you can act on, not a pile of technical notes.
A written price before work starts
Scope, timeline, and a fixed quote. You know the number before we touch the file.
We look at your real workbooks
Not a demo. Not a generic template. The files your staff use every week.
Excel and Access under one roof
We tell you when the workbook is fine and when the data belongs in Access or SQL Server.
You keep the findings
Use our team, your staff, or another vendor. The report is yours either way.
What clients say about our Excel consulting work
Verified client
Our team was manually exporting and re-entering data between Access and Outlook every single day. Their VBA programmer automated the entire workflow in about two weeks. We got back roughly 8 hours a week almost immediately.
Verified client
We had them do a complete rewrite of an Excel spreadsheet that locked up computers, when it was executed. Rajan did a good job of rewriting the spreadsheet and speeding it up. it takes three seconds to refresh compared to 20 minutes it was taking earlier. We'll definitely use Rajan and his team in the future.
1 / 4
Related tools and reading
Put a dollar number on the manual work with the Workflow Cost Audit. Browse the MS Excel services hub. If you are merging data from many files, read about Excel data consolidation. Looking for database help instead? See our MS Access consultant page. For change history in workbooks, read track who changed what in Excel and Access.
Hire a Microsoft Excel consultant: FAQs
FAQ
Frequently Asked Questions
Find answers to common questions about our services
A Microsoft Excel consultant reviews the spreadsheets your business depends on, works out what they are supposed to report or decide, then fixes, automates, connects, or rebuilds them. That can mean cleaner models, VBA macros that run repetitive steps, dashboards that refresh, and links to systems you already pay for. The first deliverable is a written recommendation: fix it, extend it, or move the data to a database.
Describe one concrete problem, share a redacted copy of the workbook, and ask for a written scope and fixed price before any billable work. Compare consultants on four points: do they review your real files, do they quote in writing, can they show finished projects like yours, and will they sign an NDA. With us, step one is a free 15-minute call.
We do not bill by the hour. After a free first look at a copy of your workbooks, you get a written scope and a fixed price. Projects typically start at $1,200. Small fixes often cost less; multi-workbook reporting packs, dashboards, and system connections cost more. You see the figure before any billable work starts. Price moves with workbook count, existing macros, outside data sources, and documentation.
There are three common routes: marketplaces such as Upwork or Fiverr for small, well-defined tasks, specialist consulting firms for business-critical workbooks, and an in-house analyst for daily upkeep. Excel Access Expert is a specialist firm that works remotely with US businesses, on a copy of your files, under an NDA if you want one.
Look for five things: they review your real workbooks instead of working from a short brief, they give a written scope and fixed price, they show comparable finished projects, they will sign an NDA, and they leave documentation your staff can follow. Also check that they will tell you when Excel is the wrong tool. A consultant who only knows Excel will keep stretching a workbook that should be a database.
The titles overlap. An Excel expert knows the tool very well. An Excel consultant works out what the business needs from it and writes the plan. An Excel developer builds it, usually with VBA, Power Query, or connections to other systems. We do all three, so you can hire us for the plan, the build, or both.
Yes. We build new macros, repair ones that broke after an Office update or only work on one person's PC, and document them so more than one person can run them. Typical jobs are month-end steps, report generation, data imports, and file clean-up. Every macro gets error handling and a run log so failures are visible instead of silent.
Yes. We handle slow files, broken formulas, macros that fail on other machines, and workbooks nobody else can touch. We work on a copy, fix what is wrong, and leave notes so the next person is not guessing. If the file is a mess, we can start with a small paid review and a written plan, ranked by risk.
Yes. This is one of the most common reasons people call. We work on a copy, trace where the numbers come from, document every sheet and macro in plain English, and fix what is fragile. You end up with a file your team can run without the original author.
Usually the file is doing too much work every time someone types: huge unused ranges, duplicated data, volatile or whole-column formulas that recalculate everything, or too many linked files. We find what is wasting time, trim it, and make the file usable again. If the file keeps corrupting or locking when several people open it, that is a sign the data belongs in a database.
Yes, as long as the numbers come from a source that can be refreshed, such as a SQL Server or Access database, a SharePoint list, a CRM or ERP export, or a structured file folder. We load the data with Power Query or a database connection, agree with the readers what each figure means, and set it up so one refresh updates the whole dashboard.
Yes. We connect Excel to SharePoint or OneDrive, SQL Server, Access, CRM or ERP systems, and other tools so numbers refresh instead of being pasted every Monday. The exact setup depends on what you already use and who needs access.
Move when several people edit the same file at once, the file is very large, it keeps locking or corrupting, or you need a proper history of who changed what. A worksheet holds at most 1,048,576 rows, and an Access database file is limited to 2 GB, so very large data usually belongs in SQL Server. A common setup keeps Excel for reports and analysis while the official data lives in Access or SQL Server. We tell you straight if your workbook is fine as it is.
Small fixes can finish in days. A reporting pack across several workbooks, or a connection to another system, can take weeks. We agree milestones and a written scope before major billable work.
We quote fixed prices for defined projects instead of open-ended hourly work, so you know the cost before we start. If your need is ongoing, we can scope a recurring piece of work with a written deliverable and price each time.
Bring one concrete problem and, if possible, a redacted copy of the workbook. Useful details are who uses the file, how often it is updated, what breaks or takes too long, which systems it pulls from, and what a finished result looks like. You do not need a technical specification; we write that for you.
Hire a fixed-scope consultant when the workbook runs part of the business, the problem is not fully defined yet, or you want a written plan, documentation, and someone who will say when Excel is the wrong tool. A marketplace freelancer can suit a small, already-scoped task if you can vet them. We quote a fixed price before billable work; we do not run open-ended hourly freelance retainers.
Yes to both. We routinely work under NDAs and can start from redacted samples until you are comfortable sharing full workbooks. Most projects are done remotely, on a copy of your files, for clients in the US, UK, and Canada.
Talk to an Excel consultant about your workbooks
Book a free 15-minute consultation. Bring one concrete problem: slow files, broken macros, or a reporting pack. We will outline the next step.
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15+Years Experience
FixedScope Quotes
2011Established
Prefer to talk? Call us at +1 385 386 3860