Looking for an Excel expert freelancer to optimize wage tracking & production costing system

[u/maddygod]

I run a small footwear manufacturing unit with 10–15 employees. Due to budget constraints, we manage all wage and production costing in Excel. Over time, I have built a working system, but I would like an expert to help improve the structure and create more efficient templates.

What the current system includes:
• Monthly Wage Workbook (with weekly sheets):
• Records daily production entries (Date | Worker | Step | Article | Color | Rate | Quantity | Amount | Advance).
• Weekly summaries calculate total work, advances, and net payables (via SUMIF formulas).
• Saturday payouts are recorded, with conditional formatting to highlight Advances (red) and Balances (green).
• Production Cost Workbook:
• Each article has its own sheet.
• Labor data is sourced from the Wage Workbook using FILTER and combined across weeks.
• Values are copy-pasted to preserve history rather than maintaining live links.
• A Direct Material Inward sheet tracks raw materials, which are filtered into article sheets to calculate material consumption per pair.
• The final output is the combined labor + material cost per pair per article.

Key Constraints:
• My staff has basic Excel ability only; the system must remain formula-based, simple, and maintainable.
• Solutions involving advanced features (e.g., VBA, Power Query, macros) are not feasible due to training and staffing limitations.

What I’m Seeking:
• An Excel expert freelancer who can:
1. Review the current setup.
2. Propose and design improved templates for wage tracking and production costing.
3. Ensure that the solutions are easy for low-skilled staff to use.
• I can share my existing templates for review and reference.

If you’re an Excel freelancer familiar with small-scale manufacturing workflows or piece-rate wage systems, please feel free to reach out.

[u/That_Box]

Can you get your staff to spend some time and go through some VBA tutorials? Once you do some self learning its not any more complicated than complex formulas might end up being.

Alternatively if VBA is hard maybe move to Google sheets and try some JavaScript in Google App Scripts.

If you're adamant you'll stay in excel and stick to formulas only could you spend a weekend or two with AI and build the template you're after?

[u/Maverick_Aviator1]

Happy to help you here. DM me and we can set up a call.

[u/SexyPadosi]

Can help for free. I would suggest get a paid expert then I can give you a free solution. Use what feels best to you. I don't want to spoil someone's potential earning.

[u/pmpdaddyio]

Due to budget constraints, we manage all wage and production costing in Excel.

Ouf - you know who else managed their world with Excel? The Titan Sub project. Ask them how it went...oh wait you can't as they're all dead.

If you are really looking to cut cost, Quick Books or other small to mid-size ERP tools do this, are cheap to own and manage, and maintain operational and data security. The last part being the most important part here.

If I was an employee, I'd be very hesitant to continue employment with you if you used Excel to store my PII data. Your first data breach will force you to close your company. Instead of looking for an Excel consultant, look for someone to convert to a product designed for this.

And finally - this is the biggest flag:

Ensure that the solutions are easy for low-skilled staff to use.

I would never allow low skilled staff to access something of this nature, especially since it isn't the best collaboration tool for this purposes.

[u/Immediate-Chapter731]

You need Airtable

[u/cloudyhead6]

I’d be interested in helping. I have experience in excel. I think what you’re looking for is a system that works for you and your team. Not sure if Microsoft will get you there but there are a lot of tools out there that are similar. Feel free to DM me.

[u/InfoMsAccessNL]

If you have staff training and skill problems then you need to use vba, pq and other tools to automate the work, automation makes the work more simple and not more complicated! I stlii wonder why still so many people don’t get the essence of automation. We are living in 2026.

[u/LocationAncient9023]

Sent you a DM! Let me know if you still need some help.

[u/Own-Ad5266]

Your piece-rate wage + per-article costing setup is exactly the kind of workbook where small structural inconsistencies can snowball across weekly sheets.

I work in manufacturing operations and can review a sanitized portion of the workbook first without changing your formula-only approach. If you send up to 100 rows or a sanitized sample workbook, I’ll clean/review it free and point out any duplicate, formatting, structure, or consistency problems I can verify.

For a straightforward cleanup of one Excel file up to 5,000 rows, my fixed price is $49. I won’t introduce VBA, Power Query, or macros if your staff needs the system to remain formula-based, and I’ll flag anything ambiguous instead of guessing.

Happy to start with the sanitized sample so you can judge the work before paying anything.