That email, call or meeting where the numbers don't align is more than a technical problem. It's a relationship problem. While you're trying to determine who's right, your client is quietly reconsidering how much they trust you.
Data errors result from many different causes. Finding the root of the issue requires someone who can move through your entire system — from where your data originates, through every transformation it undergoes, to the reports and visuals displaying the number your client is looking at.
Vendor systems update without notice. File formats change. Data arrives differently than your system expects. These failures can go undetected and remain invisible until a client catches them.
Calculations that work in controlled conditions can break under real-world combinations of data, filters, and date ranges. The discrepancy that surfaced in that client meeting has usually existed longer than anyone realized.
Architecture decisions made during the build determine whether a reporting system stays accurate as data volume, client requirements, and business complexity grow. Structural problems don't announce themselves early.
My name is Brandon Michals. In 2003, I built the first client-facing data portal for a Top 20 U.S. Customs broker. At the time, that clients had no real-time visibility of their shipment data. My system changed that, pulling live data from their customs software and making it accessible 24/7.
I expanded the platform into a comprehensive operation: U.S. and Canadian Customs tracking, commercial invoice and ISF filing, financial details, document access, custom reports, and eventually a full Power BI Embedded implementation.
The data infrastructure and validation logic I built keeps client-facing data accurate when source systems update, regulations shift, or vendors make changes without notice. That's the work I've done for over two decades.
You're providing reporting to your clients where the accuracy of that reporting can make or break your client relationships, and you're currently dealing with one of these issues:
A Fortune 100 importer raised the issue with their customs brokerage that the reports they were receiving didn't match their internal records. The discrepancy had been building for weeks. Their contract was up for renewal.
The system appeared to be running normally, but the failure was in a processing layer pulled from a vendor's system. Wrong numbers had been reaching client-facing reports cleanly, with no visible indication anything was broken.
I built a Power BI solution to cross-check the vendor's calculations and identify all errors, then rewrote the affected logic, built in automated validation to catch similar failures before they surface to clients, and audited the rest of the pipeline for the same exposure.
The client started receiving accurate reports and signed the contract renewal.
I work with a small number of clients at any one time. The engagements work best when there's a real fit — and I'd rather you find that out on this page than three calls in.
Every engagement begins with a conversation. Not a questionnaire. Not a proposal call. A real conversation about your situation, your data environment, what you need your reporting to do, and where it's currently failing.
A real call about your situation, your data environment, what you need your reporting to do, and where it's currently failing. By the end of the call, we'll both know whether it makes sense to continue.
A structured assessment of your complete reporting environment: sources, architecture, processing, and output. The deliverable is a written document with specific findings, root causes, and a prioritized plan. It is yours regardless of what you decide next.
If it makes sense to move forward, all tasks — fixing, rebuilding, or building from scratch — are defined clearly and timelines are provided before any work begins. I work with a small number of clients at any one time.
A large, multi-national logistics provider using on-premises Qlik Sense needed to provide more than 3,000 users with access to fulfill SLAs with existing and new customers. But Qlik's per-user licensing made this cost-prohibitive, requiring $1.8 million in additional license fees.
I rebuilt their entire BI environment in Power BI Embedded without disrupting operations, eliminating per-user licensing and enabling them to scale to unlimited users.
True confidence in your reporting means having clients who renew without friction, refer without being asked, and never need to pick up the phone to challenge a number.
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