Zohal Zahir, Microsoft Fabric and Power BI consultant, Canberra

Hi, I'm Zohal

Founder & Principal Consultant · Microsoft Fabric & Power BI · Canberra

Most businesses run on a handful of systems that were never built to talk to each other — so the same number comes out differently depending on which one you ask. I bring those systems together and define each measure once, so you get one clear, trusted view of how the whole business is doing.

Microsoft Certified · DP-600 Microsoft Certified · PL-300 Certified Xero Advisor Graduate Certificate, Data Science Cert III Accounting Australian citizen

Book a free discovery call

How it works

I connect your systems, and turn them into reporting.

Your data is spread across the software you already run. I bring it together automatically in Microsoft Fabric, model it properly, and build the reporting on top.

Your systems
XeroQuickBooksMYOBExcelGoogle Sheets SharePointSQL ServerCRMPOS Rostering & payrollProperty & bookingREST APIs
Microsoft Fabric
PipelinesLakehouseCleaning & standardisingOne data model

Runs overnight, on its own. No exports, no copying between files.

Power BI
Executive reportingSite & branch comparisonFinance & P&L Owner & board packsCompliance reporting

One shared model, so every report agrees with every other one.

My story

The unconventional path.

How I got here

I trained as a doctor. Then I had children, moved countries, and by the time I was able to work again, going back to medicine wasn't realistic.

So I retrained. A Graduate Certificate in Data Science, then data analysis work, and from there into building the platforms underneath it — pipelines, data models, reporting. That's what I do now.

Along the way I kept running into financial data, and kept being unsure whether I was handling it correctly. So I went and got qualified in accounting. Not because it was required, but because I'd rather understand the books than guess at them.

What this means for you

Medicine taught me to work with numbers that have to be right, and to say clearly when something isn't certain. The accounting means your reporting matches your accounts, and I can prove it line by line. And I'll explain it in plain English to whoever has to sign it off.

The problem I solve

With one system, reporting is just reading off a screen. With six that don't talk to each other, it becomes an argument.

Each system was set up at a different time, for a different job, and each defines things slightly differently. So the same word means a different number depending on which one you open, and there's no single version everyone can rely on. Someone stitches the exports together, the total doesn't match the parts, and after that every meeting starts by debating the number instead of deciding what to do about it.

I fix the cause rather than the symptom: each measure gets defined once, across every system. Your revenue, your costs and your reporting then line up, because the whole business is finally being measured the same way.

What I've built

For a hotel group with multiple properties: one reporting platform that pulls every property's data in automatically, giving profit and loss per property, fair comparisons between them, and the reporting their lenders and investors ask for — all from a single model, checked against their accounting system.

For a City of Melbourne street audit programme (through Waste Audit & Consultancy Services): reporting that showed not just how much non-compliance there was, but exactly where it was concentrated.

And plenty of unglamorous work that matters — connecting Xero and QuickBooks to live reporting, cutting month-end down, and fixing spreadsheets that keep breaking.

See the full case studies →

How I work

I'm the founder and principal consultant, and I lead every engagement personally — you work directly with the person designing and building your platform, not with an account manager relaying messages. Based in Canberra, onsite here, and remote for clients across Australia, New Zealand and the US.

The fair question is what happens if I'm not around. So I build things you don't depend on me for: every change to your reporting is tracked and reversible, the design is written down rather than kept in my head, and your team gets trained to run it. Your reporting doesn't live on my laptop.

What I build

Technical capabilities.

Data platforms & automation

  • Microsoft Certified: Fabric Analytics Engineer (DP-600)
  • Medallion architecture — bronze, silver, gold
  • Lakehouse, pipelines, PySpark notebooks
  • REST API and SharePoint ingestion, OAuth 2.0
  • Unattended refresh with error handling

Data modelling & governance

  • Microsoft Certified: Power BI Data Analyst (PL-300)
  • Kimball dimensional modelling, conformed dimensions
  • Row-level security by team, site and role
  • Deployment pipelines across dev, test, production
  • .pbip with Git version control, metadata documentation

Finance & reporting

  • Chart-of-accounts aligned P&L across entities
  • Budget, forecast and scenario analysis
  • Debt and investment metrics — DSCR, LTV, NOI, EBITDA
  • Live Xero and QuickBooks integration
  • Excel VBA and Google Sheets automation

Sectors I work in

  • Professional services and SaaS
  • Hospitality and multi-property accommodation
  • Local government and compliance programs
  • Healthcare and community services
  • Retail and multi-site operations
Client feedback

What people say.

"Zohal is such an asset to my company. This project required a large amount of back and forth communication for requirements and dashboard updates. Zohal handled these with grace and professionalism."

Resident Services Manager
Housing organisation

"I have used Zohal on a couple of different projects. Each time she creates simple, user-friendly documents. She is willing to make tweaks until they are just right."

Repeat client
Compliance review automation

"Zohal was simply exceptional to work with. She created a complex Excel file to help me track hours for my per diem medical providers based on visit type and membership."

Practice owner
Healthcare

"Her attention to detail and remarkable analytical skills were evident in her consistently producing high-quality work."

Dr Bazlur Rashid
Senior Lecturer, Data Science & Cyber Security, University of Adelaide

Start with a diagnostic, not a build.

Tell me which systems you're running and where the numbers stop being trusted. I'll come back with an honest read on what's causing it and what fixing it would involve — before anyone commits to a project.

Book a free discovery call
  • Reply within two business days
  • Read personally, not by a sales team
  • Thirty-minute call, no deck