Excel Workflow Automation Specialist - Discovery & System Design

We are seeking a skilled freelancer to automate our Excel-based workflow. The ideal candidate will have experience in creating efficient and reliable automation solutions using Excel and related tools. Responsibilities include analyzing current processes, identifying areas for improvement, and implementing automation to enhance productivity. The goal is to streamline manual tasks and reduce errors, ensuring a seamless workflow. Title: Business Process Automation & System Design for Plumbing & Heating Contractor Description We are a UK plumbing and heating contractor specialising in new-build residential developments and are looking for an experienced consultant/developer to review our existing business processes and design a scalable future solution. Our current workflow is heavily Excel-based and covers: • Tendering & estimating • House type costing • Material take-offs • Master cost analysis • Supplier ordering • Plot management • Customer variations • Billing & valuations • Invoice generation • Xero integration • Payment tracking A typical development may contain: • 150-200 plots • 10-20 house types • Multiple billing stages • Multiple suppliers • Multi-year project lifecycles We currently use a collection of linked Excel workbooks and Word templates. The process works but involves a significant amount of manual data entry, copying and pasting, lookups and duplicated information. We are looking for someone to review our existing spreadsheets and workflow and propose a long-term solution. Examples of requirements include: • Central product database • House type management • Site and plot management • Product substitutions • Price revision management • Customer variation management • Automated ordering • Automated billing • Xero integration • Reporting and dashboards The preferred solution should allow us to add future developments, house types, products and pricing updates ourselves without requiring ongoing software development. For this initial phase we require: Review of our workflow and spreadsheets Recommended system architecture Recommended technology stack Database/data structure proposal High-level implementation plan Estimated build cost and timeline Ongoing support recommendations We are open to solutions based on: • Microsoft Power Apps • Power Automate • SharePoint • SQL Server • Azure • Custom Web Applications • Other suitable technologies Please include: • Examples of similar projects completed • Technologies you would recommend • Estimated timescale for discovery/design phase • Estimated budget range for full implementation • Your approach to migrating from Excel-based processes We can provide: • Workflow specification • House type costing workbook • Master cost analysis workbook • Billing workbook • Additional supporting documents Initial example files are from completed historical projects and are intended to demonstrate processes and data relationships rather than current commercial pricing.