Excel Is Costing You Money. 

If you’re an ESG consultant, spreadsheets have been the default operating system for years. They are familiar, flexible and deceptively powerful. But in carbon accounting, they can constrain your earning capacity and limit the value you can deliver to Clients. 

If you ever feel like you’re constantly chasing the next project, over-burdened by admin or worried that your clients aren’t seeing sufficient value in your offering, it could be time to consider an alternative way of working. 

What worked for simple budgeting and forecasting begins to fall apart under the weight of data admin, emissions reporting, multi-region factor updates and disclosure-grade governance. The result is not just inefficiency. It is risk, lost margin and a hard ceiling on growth.

Carbon accounting is not a static calculation. It requires constantly chasing clients for data, which then must be reformatted just to make sense. Then selecting the relevant emissions factors that change annually and differ across jurisdictions, switching between spend-based, activity-based and hybrid methodologies before you’re able to report Scope 1, 2 and Scope 3 emissions. And that's before you audit the output, deliver compliant reports, identify hotspots and propose carbon reduction initiatives with predictable savings backed by clear ROI.

That's a lot of manual time and effort. But there is a better way.

The manual menace

All too often, highly experienced consultants spend days or weeks wrangling data before they can start to deliver value to clients.

No serious firm would consolidate multi-entity accounts through unmanaged spreadsheets without controls, yet carbon reporting is often treated as an afterthought.

Carbon Accounting demands transparency, auditability and defensible methodology statements. And yet, spreadsheets are often the go-to option for many consultants.

Multiple tabs in multiple spreadsheets often in multiple shared drives result in costs and risks to every client project you manage. Formula errors, broken links, outdated source data, manual categorisation of thousands of rows of data, lack of audit trail are the manual menace that restricts your freedom to deliver a valuable service to your clients.

A spreadsheet was never designed to function as a governed emissions engine. It was designed to calculate numbers, not manage regulatory logic.

The real cost, however, is time. Most consultants spend most of their effort not advising but processing. Cleaning purchase ledgers. Mapping suppliers. Reconciling fuel data. Adjusting categories. Rebuilding charts. Reformatting reports. The intellectual value of sustainability strategy is diluted by mechanical data work. It is the equivalent of hiring a chartered accountant to type receipts into a calculator. When that administrative burden consumes most of the workflow, profitability quietly erodes.

Cut 90% of your data burden

This is where the right tools can transform your business. An AI first platform such as Vizibli is not merely a faster spreadsheet. It fundamentally restructures how the work is done. By automating data ingestion and categorisation, applying authenticated emissions factors from multiple regions, and enabling spend-based, activity-based and hybrid methodologies within the same environment, it removes up to 90% of the data administration burden. What once took days becomes hours. What required manual cross-checking becomes governed and traceable.

Get the answers you need in minutes, not months

AI first tools like Vizibli enable consultants to deliver more value to more clients in less time.

Vizibli takes care of data collection, calculation and analysis. It ensures emissions are calculated accurately using relevant emissions factors, handles spend based, activity based and hybrid calculations and automatically visualises data in real time. Vizibli handles thousands of rows of data in minutes. And allows consultants to manage multiple clients in one platform, without the cost and complexity of traditional carbon accounting tools. 

By connecting accounts platforms like Xero, Quickbooks or Sage, regular data updates can be automatic. Integrating ERP data or connecting with utilities such as Gas and Electricity provides removes the hassle of chasing activity data for both you - and your client.

By accurately calculating emissions from spend or activity based data without the need for manual intervention - you get the information you need quickly. A 1,000 row purchase ledger that used to take 2 weeks now takes 2 minutes. Uploading thousands of journeys taken by a fleet of vehicles can be injested, analysed and reported in a matter of minutes.

And you don't need to worry about data accuracy. With the right tools, the AI takes care of matching the right emissions factor from the right source each time, every time. With full transparency of each calculation, your data is 'audit ready'. The software displays the level of confidence it has in the calculation, so you can quickly assess the level of confidence you have in the output. AI continually learns and improves data quality, without you having to spend time checking and re-checking inputs and outputs.

4X productivity - more clients in less time

Imagine being able to spend more time advising more clients, while Vizibli takes care of accurate data analysis and reporting? 

A platform approach enables leverage. Consultants can manage multiple clients in one environment, standardise methodologies, generate compliant reports in minutes and monitor emissions monthly rather than annually. Productivity can increase fourfold because the bottleneck shifts from manual processing to strategic interpretation. Instead of being a spreadsheet operator, you become a carbon intelligence advisor.

Spreadsheets impose linear growth: more clients mean more hours, more fatigue and eventually more hires, which compress margins.

The methodology flexibility alone transforms credibility. Serious carbon reporting requires the ability to combine rapid spend-based baselines with precise activity-based calculations and hybrid models that reflect real-world SME data maturity. Doing this dynamically in Excel quickly creates version confusion and governance gaps. In a structured platform, those methodologies coexist transparently. Emissions factors are authenticated. Calculation disclosures are embedded. Regional variations are accounted for without rebuilding models from scratch. That defensibility matters in tenders, boardrooms and supply-chain audits.

Earn while you sleep

There is also a commercial shift that most consultants underestimate. Traditional carbon projects generate annual fees or episodic revenue that ends when the project finishes.

A report is delivered, a fee is paid, and engagement pauses until the following year. 

Using tools like Vizibli ensure you’re delivering value on an ongoing basis. Regular data updates, monthly dashboards, replying to ad hoc information requests or client reporting requirements, proactively tracking reduction programmes and delivering procurement insights become ongoing services.

It enables the consultant to embed themselves into clients’ operations – delivering value on an ongoing basis with a resultant increase in monthly or annual recurring revenues. Revenue becomes predictable. Relationships deepen. Consultants are no longer selling an annual report; they are delivering a managed service that powers clients’ sustainable growth. That’s how consultants earn while they sleep.

Ready to grow your business?

Consider your options - Continue operating a labour-intensive, manually governed process that caps growth and absorbs margin. Or adopt a managed service approach that frees you up to deliver more value to more clients without increasing headcount.

Check out Vizibli.