WHAT WE DO

Excelevate Consulting LLC was founded by Derek Henry in 2017 to help companies and individuals save time.  In fact, that’s our official mission: To save a lot of people a lot of time.  We accomplish this in four ways – through tools (add-ins and templates), training, coaching, and consulting projects.  We are based in the Dallas-Fort Worth area.

Our Team

Derek Henry, Owner and Lead Consultant – Derek graduated from Texas A&M University in 2003 with a Bachelor’s degree in Accounting and a Master’s degree in Management Information Systems.  His career started in public accounting as an auditor at Grant Thornton, focusing primarily in the retail and consumer products industries.  He then held Controller and similar roles in corporate accounting before pivoting to pre-sales. He is currently a Financials Solutions Consultant at Workday.

He’s always been obsessed with efficiency and quickly wrote his first few macros in Excel after graduating from Texas A&M.  That passion grew over time and eventually led to the creation of the XLEV8 Add-in Suite and several training courses, where his passion has extended to teaching others.  Derek is a Certified Public Accountant and a Certified Fraud Examiner.  Derek lives with his wife, two daughters, and two goldendoodles in Arlington, TX.  He is actively involved at church, and enjoys disc golf, softball, and having fun with his family.

Connect with Derek on LinkedIn!

Derek’s Excel Journey

Sometimes things start off rough. That’s the best way to describe my Excel journey! My first exposure to Excel was in a college class covering basic business apps.  I made a mistake with an absolute reference that cascaded to the rest of the assignment, and got a 10% on the assignment.  Yikes!  Thankfully, I think I’ve made up for since.

Soon after, I chose accounting for my major, and as a part of my degree program, I had an epic class that taught us how to use the important Excel features we’d leverage as accountants.  Most importantly, we learned how to think efficiently.  I was also exposed to macros with VBA – the first time I had ever appreciated programming.

Soon after I graduated, I got to work on an important out-of-town project where I was working in Excel all day and had about as much space as the middle seat on an airplane.  I had no space to move my mouse, so I learned several keyboard shortcuts, and I was addicted.  A few times, I’d find there was no shortcut for something, so I’d make a macro by recording my steps.  That made it really easy to learn some of the basics of VBA.

I noticed that a lot of our work was extremely repetitive, so I thought through the logic and automated a lot of it using formulas and macros.  I quickly gained a reputation for being being efficient and taking the initiative to improve things.

I continued that trend through my 5 years in public accounting and into corporate accounting, where I worked at several companies with multiple locations.  Multi-unit business (like retailers, restaurants, and banks) have so many efficiency opportunities because each location is like its own business.  If you can optimize the process for them, that process can be replicated, offering incredible efficiencies.

Over the years, I had built hundreds of macros, many of which I put in my personal macro workbook so they’d always be available.  I shared them with several colleagues, who were extremely appreciative.  At one point, a boss suggested I build something I could offer commercially, because there was so much value to be gained.  That led me to learning how Excel add-ins work.

I optimized 100 or so macros that I thought could be universally helpful, adding instructions, prompts, and data validation so that they’d be easy to use (I’m kind of obsessed with the user experience!).  I released the XLEV8 Add-in a few months later.  I continue adding to it, and it’s getting close to 400 helpful tools – shortcuts that combine steps, bulk tools that automate high-volume tasks, and integrations with apps like Outlook, PowerPoint, Chrome, and beyond.

I’ve helped several companies optimize painful Excel-based processes, using a combination of tailored solutions and the tools in the XLEV8 add-in.  It’s such a win-win helping people that don’t have the time to improve processes they know could be better!

More recently, I’ve done a lot of training, from the basics to the advanced features in Excel, and I’ve added several productivity courses to the catalog as well.  One-on-one and small group coaching is another area I’m getting into.  Training and coaching are great ways to help people be more productive and accomplish that mission of saving a lot of people a lot of time!