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Power BI Consulting

Get out of manual Excel reporting. Into an automated Power BI solution.

I help small teams replace spreadsheet-built, manually-updated reports with Power BI dashboards that refresh themselves — on an ad hoc project basis or a standing monthly retainer. No long contracts, no big agency overhead.

Get in touch See what I offer

What I help with

Practical, hands-on support across the reporting lifecycle — from messy source data to a dashboard people actually use.

⚙️

Excel-to-Power BI Automation

My core focus: replacing manually maintained spreadsheet reports with automated Power BI solutions — reducing repetitive work and the risk of manual error, while giving your team reliable, up-to-date reporting.

📊

Power BI Dashboards & Reporting

Power BI dashboards designed for clarity and confident decision-making, built around the metrics and questions that matter most to your business.

🔍

Data Analysis & SQL

Ad hoc analysis to answer specific business questions, with light SQL support to pull and shape data when needed.

🗓️

Ad Hoc or Retainer

Book a one-off project, or set up a monthly retainer for ongoing dashboard maintenance and support.

How it works

Simple to start, easy to scale up or down as your needs change.

1

Quick intro call

We talk through what you need — a one-off dashboard, ongoing reporting support, or something in between.

2

Scope & quote

I send a clear scope of work and a quote — for ad hoc work or a monthly retainer — priced around what the project actually needs.

3

I get to work

You get regular updates as I build, clean, and shape your data into something useful.

4

Ongoing support

Need changes later, or want to keep the retainer going month to month? That's easy to arrange.

Have a data or BI project in mind?

Tell me what you're working with and what you need — I'll get back to you with next steps.

Get in touch
Live Sample Dashboard

See what automated reporting looks like

An interactive sample dashboard, built the same way I'd build yours — try the filters below.

Revenue
£128,400
▲ 8.2% vs prior period
Orders
1,240
▲ 5.6% vs prior period
Growth
8.2%
Trending up

Revenue Trend

Sales by Category

Services

Reporting that runs without you.

Most of my work starts the same way: a spreadsheet someone updates by hand, and a business that has outgrown it. Here's what I do about that.

What I help with

Four types of work. Most projects are the first one, sometimes with a little of the others mixed in.

⚙️

Excel-to-Power BI Automation

My core focus: replacing manually maintained spreadsheet reports with automated Power BI solutions — reducing repetitive work and the risk of manual error, while giving your team reliable, up-to-date reporting.

  • Review of your current workbook and data sources
  • A proper data model rebuilt in Power Query
  • Scheduled refresh, so the report updates itself
  • Built in your own Power BI environment
📊

Power BI Dashboards & Reporting

Power BI dashboards designed for clarity and confident decision-making, built around the metrics and questions that matter most to your business.

  • Agreed metric definitions, so numbers stop disagreeing
  • Layouts built for the people who'll actually read them
  • Drill-downs and filters where they earn their place
  • Written notes and a walkthrough at handover
🔍

Data Analysis & SQL

Ad hoc analysis to answer specific business questions, with light SQL support to pull and shape data when needed.

  • One clear question, properly answered
  • Queries and views to get at the underlying data
  • Data cleaning and reconciliation
  • The working shared, not just the conclusion
🗓️

Ad Hoc or Retainer

Book a one-off project, or set up a monthly retainer for ongoing dashboard maintenance and support.

  • One-off projects quoted as a fixed fee
  • Retainers for changes, fixes and new reports
  • No minimum term — stop whenever it stops being useful
  • Work stays in your environment either way

What you end up with

Every build finishes the same way, so there's no ambiguity about what you're paying for.

1

A working report

Published in your own Power BI workspace, refreshing on a schedule you choose.

2

The model underneath

Structured properly so it can be extended later, rather than rebuilt from scratch.

3

Documentation

Written notes on where the data comes from, how each measure is calculated, and what to check if something looks wrong.

4

Full ownership

The workspace, the model and the report are yours. Nothing is locked to me, and you're free to take it in-house at any point.

Common questions

Do we need Power BI licences?

Power BI Desktop is free, so the build itself costs you nothing in licensing. To share a report with colleagues you'll usually need a Power BI Pro licence for each person viewing it. I'll tell you exactly what's needed before you commit to anything — and if a free option like Looker Studio suits you better, I'll say so.

What data access do you need?

Read-only access to the sources behind your reporting — often just the exports or spreadsheets you already produce. I never need write access to your live systems.

Our data is a mess. Is that a problem?

No — it's usually the job. Data being messy is the normal starting point, not a reason to wait. If it turns out the data genuinely can't support what you want to report on, I'll tell you that early rather than after you've paid for a build.

How long does a build take?

A typical Excel-to-Power BI project runs two to four weeks, depending on how many sources are involved and how quickly feedback comes back. Ad hoc analysis is usually days rather than weeks.

What happens to our data?

It's covered by a written agreement before any work starts: used only for the project, held securely, and deleted at the end unless you ask otherwise.

Not sure which one you need?

Describe what you're reporting on today and I'll tell you honestly what would help most — including if that's nothing.

Get in touch
Pricing

Fixed fees, agreed before I start.

You'll get a written scope and a price before any work begins. If the scope changes, we agree the change first — no surprise invoices at the end.

Ways to work together

Starting prices for the three most common arrangements. Every project is quoted properly once I know what's involved.

Ad Hoc Analysis

A specific question that needs answering properly, once.

from £450fixed fee per piece of work
  • One clearly defined question
  • Data pulled, cleaned and checked
  • Findings written up plainly
  • The working file, so you can reuse it
  • Usually delivered within a week
Enquire
Most common

Power BI Build

Replacing a manual spreadsheet report with an automated dashboard.

from £1,800fixed fee per build
  • Review of your current reporting
  • Data model built in Power Query
  • Power BI dashboard, scheduled to refresh
  • Built in your own environment
  • Documentation and a walkthrough
  • One round of changes after handover
Enquire

Monthly Retainer

Ongoing support once something is live, or a steady stream of smaller jobs.

from £600per month, no minimum term
  • An agreed block of hours each month
  • Changes, fixes and new reports
  • Priority over one-off enquiries
  • Monthly summary of what was done
  • Cancel any month — no notice period
Enquire

Prices exclude any software licences you may need — Power BI Desktop is free, but sharing reports usually requires a Pro licence per viewer. I'll always tell you what's needed before you commit.

What moves the price

Two builds that sound identical can cost very differently. These are the things that actually drive it.

1

How many sources

One clean export is quick. Six systems that disagree with each other is a different job.

2

The state of the data

Consistent, well-structured data moves fast. Merged cells, manual overrides and half-finished columns take longer.

3

How many views

A single dashboard for one team costs less than a set of reports for finance, ops and the board.

4

How settled the questions are

If you know what you need to see, we move quickly. If it's still being worked out, expect more back-and-forth.

Common questions

How do payments work?

For fixed-fee projects, half on signing and half on delivery. Retainers are invoiced monthly. Payment terms are 14 days.

Is the first call chargeable?

No. The intro call and the quote that follows are free, and there's no obligation either way.

What if the project turns out to be bigger than expected?

I'll flag it as soon as I see it and we agree how to handle it before I carry on. You won't get an invoice for work you didn't approve.

Can we start small?

Usually the sensible move. A single report or one piece of analysis is a low-risk way to find out whether we work well together before committing to anything larger.

Do you tie people into contracts?

No. Retainers run month to month and can be stopped whenever they stop being worth it.

Want a number for your project?

Tell me what you're reporting on and how it's put together today. I'll come back with a scope and a fixed price.

Request a quote
About

You'd be working with me, not a team you never meet.

Freeform Analytics is a one-person consultancy. That's deliberate — and it's the reason the work stays small, direct and properly attended to.

Background

I'm a senior data analyst working in the UK, with years of hands-on experience building and maintaining reporting in complex, high-volume data environments — the kind where a broken number gets noticed immediately.

At every scale it's the same underlying problem: data arriving in inconsistent shapes, people manually stitching it together, and decisions being made on numbers nobody fully trusts. Freeform Analytics is where I solve that for smaller teams — who have the same problem, without the budget for a full-time analyst.

I keep the number of projects deliberately low. It means I'm not juggling ten clients at once, and the work you're paying for actually gets thought about.

Everything is built in your environment and handed over in full — the workspace, the model, the documentation. If you want to take it in-house later, or hand it to someone else entirely, nothing is locked to me. A consultant you can't leave isn't a consultant, they're a dependency.

How I work

  • Direct contact — no account manager in between
  • Fixed fees agreed before anything starts
  • Read-only access to your data, nothing more
  • Written scope and a signed agreement every time
  • Everything built in your own environment
  • Honest answers, including "you don't need this"

Tools

Power BI Power Query DAX SQL Excel Data modelling Looker Studio

What I care about

Three things that shape how every project runs.

🔒

Discretion

I work with commercially sensitive numbers. Client work is confidential, covered by a written agreement, and never used as a case study without permission. Your data is used for your project and nothing else.

🧭

Straight answers

If a dashboard won't fix your problem, I'll say so — even when it costs me the work. Most reporting problems are really data problems, and pretending otherwise wastes your money.

🔑

No lock-in

You own everything I build. No proprietary layer, no hosting tied to my account, no ongoing fee just to keep the lights on. Retainers are month to month because they should have to earn their place.

📐

Built to last

A dashboard that works today but can't take a new data source next quarter isn't finished. The model underneath matters more than the charts on top, even though nobody ever asks to see it.

Fancy a conversation?

No pitch and no pressure — just a straight discussion about what you're dealing with and whether I can help.

Get in touch
Contact

Tell me what you're working with.

A short description of your current reporting and what keeps going wrong with it is plenty to start. I'll reply within a couple of business days.

Prefer email?

Reach me directly at meakin252@hotmail.com

Response time

I typically reply within 1–2 business days.

What happens next

A short call to understand what you need, then a written scope and a fixed price. No obligation, and the call and quote are free.

Your data

Anything you share is treated as confidential and used only to respond to your enquiry.

© 2026 Freeform Analytics. All rights reserved. meakin252@hotmail.com