Open for new projects

Turning messy data into actionable insights.

VK Data Systems is an independent Data, BI & Automation practice built on Power BI, Tableau, Metabase, Power Automate, and cloud-based automation. I help retail, e-commerce, and finance teams turn scattered spreadsheets into dashboards, reports, and workflows they can trust — and train your team to keep it that way.

Schedule a consultation Portfolio

Years turning chaos into clarity

Direct

You work with me, not a team

1-day

Typical response time

24/7

AI-powered automation, always on

Real Power BI dashboard built on a public retail sales dataset

Real Power BI dashboard — see it in Portfolio

About

The person behind VK Data Systems

Hi, I'm Varun. I like turning messy spreadsheets into dashboards people actually open. I'm an independent BI & data analytics consultant and trainer with 5+ years turning messy business, financial, and operational data into reliable ETL pipelines, Power BI / Tableau / Metabase dashboards, and automated reporting.

My background spans retail, e-commerce, and financial services. M.A.Sc. in Electrical & Computer Engineering from the University of Windsor, with a background that blends technical depth with clear, stakeholder-facing communication. I work directly with you from requirements through delivery — no account managers, no hand-offs — and I train your team along the way, not just hand over a finished dashboard.

Retail & consumer goods E-commerce & DTC Financial services

Services

Where I can step in

From a single dashboard to full ongoing support — scoped to what you need, not a fixed monthly retainer.

ETL Pipeline Development & Automation

I design and build ETL pipelines that pull data from your source systems, clean it, and load it where it needs to go — reliably, on schedule. If you're manually exporting, reformatting, and re-uploading data every week, I replace that with a workflow that just runs.

Power BI, Tableau & Metabase Dashboards

I build executive dashboards for leadership and self-service dashboards your team can explore on their own — segmented by product, region, customer, or whatever dimensions matter to your business.

Process Automation with Python

Using Pandas and NumPy, I turn repetitive manual data tasks — cleaning spreadsheets, merging files, running the same calculations every week — into scripts that run in minutes instead of hours.

AI-Powered BI & Automated Reporting

I connect AI assistants like Claude directly to your BI platform so marketing and sales teams can ask plain-English questions and get answers without filing a report request — paired with Power Automate to distribute reporting on a schedule.

Also available: SQL Reporting & Data Quality, Executive Reporting & Data Storytelling, KPI Framework & Reporting Design. Ask me about the full list →

Platforms

I plug into your stack, not the other way around

Power BI

Advanced dashboard design with DAX — executive views, self-service reporting, and row-level security when needed.

DAX measuresExecutive dashboardsData modeling

471K ▲ 12%

Metabase

Lightweight, fast reporting setup for teams that want self-service BI without the overhead of an enterprise platform.

Quick setupSelf-service queriesLightweight dashboards

12,483 ▲ 8% vs last period

AI Integration

Connecting AI assistants like Claude directly to your BI platform — plain-English questions, real answers, pulled from your actual data.

Natural language Q&AAutomated summaries

"What was our top region last month?" → "Region A, up 12%."

Also comfortable with Tableau and Power Automate — happy to work in whichever platform your team already has.

How I work

The kinds of problems I get called in for

General patterns from real engagements, described without client specifics.

Manual → Automated

The same spreadsheet, rebuilt by hand every cycle

Replaced a manual, multi-source reconciliation process with a Python pipeline that pulls, cleans, and reconciles data automatically — flagging exceptions instead of redoing the whole process.

Power BI + DAX

Leadership and analysts needed different views of the same data

Built one Power BI model with row-level security underneath both an executive at-a-glance view and analyst-level slicing — so everyone works from the same numbers.

AI + Automation

Plain-English answers, without waiting on a report request

Connected an AI assistant directly to the BI platform so stakeholders could ask questions in plain English, then automated monthly summary distribution with Power Automate.

Portfolio

Real projects, built end-to-end

Dashboards, automations, and AI integrations built from public datasets and personal projects — so you can see the actual work, not just a description of it.

Dashboard

Retail Sales Analytics Dashboard

Revenue, transaction volume, and average order value tracked monthly, broken down by product category, customer age group, and gender. Built in Power BI on a public retail sales dataset.

Retail Sales Analytics Power BI dashboard

Automation

Retail Sales Report Automation

Reads a raw sales CSV, loads it into Excel, runs a macro to build a channel-level summary with an automated chart, and saves the output — replacing a manual copy/paste/pivot-table routine. Built in Power Automate Desktop on a public retail sales dataset.

Power Automate Desktop flow — Sales Report Generator

Automated Excel summary and chart generated by the flow

AI Integration

Claude-Powered BI Assistant

Claude connected directly to a Metabase-backed dataset, answering plain-English business questions with real numbers pulled live from the data — the same setup used to answer marketing and sales questions at work, rebuilt here on a public retail dataset.

Which product category is driving the most revenue?

Electronics — $156,905 across 342 orders, narrowly ahead of Clothing at $155,580.

Any seasonality in the numbers?

Yes — May was the strongest month at $53,150, well above the ~$35K monthly average.

Live query · Claude + Metabase, retail sales dataset

Metabase dashboard — Retail Sales Performance, the data behind the AI answers

How it works

A straightforward process, start to finish

Scope the problem

A short call to understand your data sources, current pain points, and what "done" looks like.

Explore the data

Dig into your actual data to find what's usable, what's messy, and what's missing before building anything.

Build & review

Build the pipeline, dashboard, or report — with check-ins so there are no surprises at delivery.

Handoff & training

Documentation and a complimentary training session so your team can run it without me — plus support if things change.

Close, constant communication

You'll hear from me regularly throughout the engagement, not just at kickoff and delivery.

Quick-start needs questionnaire

Before any work begins, a short questionnaire covers your goals, data sources, and priorities.

Resources & training, at no extra cost

Every engagement includes documentation and hands-on training, not just a finished dashboard.

FAQ

Common questions

Both. I've delivered enterprise-grade reporting for larger organizations and hands-on dashboard builds for smaller teams — the approach scales to the project.

Depends on your team size and budget. Happy to walk through Power BI vs. Tableau vs. Metabase for your specific case on an initial call.

Either — fixed-price for well-scoped projects (like a single dashboard or report), hourly for open-ended or ongoing support.

Sample data (even a CSV export) and a short conversation about what decisions the report or dashboard needs to support.

Contact

Let's fix your reporting

Send the basics below and I'll get back to you directly — no account or middleman needed.

Prefer to just talk?

Book a free 30-minute consultation directly on my calendar — mornings 7–9 AM or evenings 4–8 PM. No cost, no commitment.

Book a free consultation

Emailvatsvarun782@gmail.com

LocationMississauga, ON

LinkedInlinkedin.com/in/varunkumarvats