Cost and Profitability
Site index
Everything we have published, grouped by subject. If you are here for the first time, start with the five below.
412 pages / 32 sections
Start here
- The method Time-driven activity-based costing What time-driven activity-based costing is, and why it replaced classic ABC.
- The question Cost to serve What each customer really costs to serve, which gross margin never shows.
- The picture The whale curve The one chart that shows which customers pay for the ones that do not.
- The gap Capacity costing Unused capacity, and why burying it in rates makes every other number wrong.
- Try it Profit Check Score your own costing across seven dimensions. Free, and it takes minutes.
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Methods and concepts 110 pages
Method profiles52
- Absorption vs Variable (Direct) Costing
- Activity-based costing
- Activity-Based Management (ABM)
- BI Tools for Cost and Profitability Analysis
- Capital Allocation, ROIC and the Cost of Capital
- Channel and Segment Profitability Analysis
- Cost of Quality (COQ and COPQ)
- Cost-to-Serve in Commercial Due Diligence
- Cost-Volume-Profit (CVP) and Break-Even Analysis
- CostCtrl vs Spreadsheets for Profitability Modelling
- Costing Methods Around the World
- Customer Lifetime Value (CLV) in Profitability Analysis
- Driver-Based Planning & Rolling Forecasts
- Economic Value Added (EVA) & Residual Income
- Enterprise Costing, Then vs Now
- Enterprise Profitability for SMEs, No Big-4 Budget
- ETL for Cost and Profitability Analytics
- From Blueprint to a Model That Runs
- GPK (Grenzplankostenrechnung)
- GPK vs ABC
- Job Costing vs Process Costing
- Kaizen Costing and Continuous Cost Improvement
- Life-Cycle Costing and Total Cost of Ownership
- Make-or-Buy and Relevant Costs
- Management Accounting vs Financial Accounting
- Methods & Frameworks
- Pocket Price Waterfall and Price Realization
- Portfolio-Company Profitability Diagnostics for Private Equity
- Profitability KPIs and Performance Measurement
- Profitability OKRs
- Resource Consumption Accounting (RCA)
- Sales Mix and Product-Mix Optimization
- Standard costing
- Standard Costing vs Actual Costing
- Target costing
- Target costing vs kaizen costing
- Target costing vs standard costing
- TDABC vs GPK
- The Client Journey to a Trusted Profitability Model
- The Cost of Unused Capacity
- The costing model that died (and how to keep yours alive)
- Throughput accounting
- Throughput accounting vs ABC
- Time-driven activity-based costing
- Transfer Pricing for Internal Profitability
- UEP vs ABC
- UEP vs GPK
- UEP vs standard costing
- UEP vs TDABC
- UEP vs throughput accounting
- UEP: the production effort unit method
- Why Costing Models Fail After Go-Live
Costing maturity model6
Sustainability3
Also in this section49
- Activity-Based Costing for CSRD & ESG Reporting
- Activity-based vs traditional costing
- Balanced Scorecard + TDABC
- Capacity Costing
- Capacity Management
- Contribution margin vs cost to serve
- Cost Allocation
- Cost and Productivity
- Cost and profitability intelligence
- Cost-Plus vs Value-Based Pricing
- Cost-to-Serve Analysis
- Cost-to-Serve vs Gross Margin
- Costing Tools & Governance
- Customer Profitability Analysis
- Five Common Mistakes When Implementing a Costing System
- How to calculate cost to serve, step by step
- How to set a minimum order that actually works
- IFRS and the cost model underneath it
- Lean and Six Sigma with TDABC
- Planning and budgeting
- Pricing on Real Cost
- Profit-Driven Budgeting
- Profitability Forecasting
- Profitability Visibility
- Scenario Modelling for Cost & Profitability
- Scenario Simulation
- Strategic Decision Support
- Strategy Execution + TDABC
- Subcontracted TDABC Delivery
- TDABC course
- TDABC Process Design
- TDABC Time Equations
- TDABC vs ABC
- The cost driver library
- The cost model data extract
- The Cost-to-Serve Index 2026 benchmark survey
- The hidden cost of small orders
- The Margin Cascade
- The overhead allocation problem
- The Profitability Benchmark Framework
- The State of Costing, H1 2026
- The Whale Curve
- Time-driven activity-based costing
- Traditional Costing vs ABC vs TDABC
- Understanding Cost Pools and Resource Groups in TDABC
- Value-Based Health Care
- What Changed in ESRS After the 2025 Omnibus
- Why your ERP doesn't show real profitability
- Zero-based budgeting
Industries 99 pages
Healthcare8
Manufacturing8
Financial services7
Food and beverage7
IT and digital services7
Logistics6
Professional services6
Retail6
Shared services5
Hospitality and tourism4
Telecommunications4
Construction and engineering3
Distribution3
Education and universities3
Energy and utilities3
Government and public sector3
Nonprofit organisations3
Also in this section13
- AI and the future by industry
- Business Performance Management Trends, Serralves 2013
- Cost Analysis for Construction
- Cost-to-serve by industry
- Customer profitability by industry
- Data & Technology for Costing
- Industries: cost & profitability by sector
- Pricing and margins by industry
- Profit for Good
- TDABC by industry
- TDABC for Ports and Logistics
- TDABC in Healthcare
- Technology Cost & Value
Software and data 41 pages
CostCtrl demo24
Also in this section15
- Acorn Alternative
- Activity-Based Costing Software
- Build & Embed: TDABC Model Deployed and Owned
- Cost-to-Serve Software
- CostPerform Alternative
- Customer Profitability Analysis Software
- How to Build a TDABC Model
- Oracle HPCM Alternative
- Partners
- Profitability Analysis Software
- Profitability Model Demo
- SAP PCM & PaPM Alternative
- SAS ABM Migration
- TDABC Software
- The Cost-to-Serve Index 2026
AI 25 pages
AI costing prompts15
- AI costing prompts for private equity
- AI costing prompts for the CEO or founder
- AI costing prompts for the CFO
- AI costing prompts for the cost accountant
- AI costing prompts for the financial controller
- AI costing prompts for the FP&A analyst
- AI costing prompts that a cost specialist actually trusts
- AI prompts for budgeting and forecasting
- How to stop AI inventing your numbers
- Rank customers by profit and build the whale curve
- The prompt for a cost-to-serve analysis with AI
- The prompt for variance commentary and board reporting
- The prompt to build a TDABC model with AI
- The prompt to pressure-test a pricing decision
- The prompt to quantify the cost of unused capacity
The cost of AI5
AI and profitability3
Also in this section2
How we work 36 pages
Profit Check15
- Capacity utilization management
- Cost analysis reporting tools
- Cost data pricing decisions
- Cost data strategic decisions
- Cost model governance documentation
- Cost model review frequency
- Customer profitability analysis
- Data infrastructure maturity
- Finance technology strategic analysis
- Indirect cost allocation methods
- Margin variation drivers
- Operational process cost modelling
- Profitability analysis granularity
- Profitability Health Check
- Scenario modeling capability
Also in this section15
- Activity-Based Costing (ABC) Consulting
- Advisory: A Sparring Partner for Profitability Decisions
- CFO
- Controller
- Cost Management Consulting
- Fractional Profitability Controller
- How We Work
- PE Portfolio Scan
- Portfolio profitability for private equity
- Profitability Consulting Firm
- ProfitAudit 360
- Start Here: A Guided Tour of the Site
- TDABC Academy
- Time-Driven Activity-Based Costing Consulting
- Work with us
Insights 93 pages
Blog66
- 3 Signs Your Business Is Ready for a TDABC Implementation
- 5 Questions Every CFO Should Ask Before the Next Budget Cycle
- Blog
- Capacity Utilisation in TDABC
- Cost Accounting vs Management Accounting
- Cost Allocation in Healthcare
- Cost Data in Pricing Decisions
- Cost Intelligence for Clinics
- Cost Model Governance
- Customer Profitability Analysis
- Data Infrastructure for Cost Modeling
- From Actuals to Simulations
- From ERP to ESG - Using Your Financial Data for Sustainability Reporting
- From Gut Feel to Model
- From shop floor to boardroom
- Gross Margin vs Contribution Margin vs Net Margin, Explained
- Gross Margin vs. Net Profitability
- How Often Should You Update Your Cost Model? A Frequency Guide by Business Type
- How Retail Chains Can Stop Losing Money on "Popular" Products
- How to Allocate Environmental Costs by Activity - A TDABC Approach
- How to Allocate Overhead Without Distorting Product Cost
- How to Calculate Customer Profitability
- How to Calculate the True Cost of a Discount
- How to Identify Your Unprofitable Customers
- How to Know if Your Pricing Is Killing Your Profits
- How to measure the cost of a cycle of care
- How to Measure the ROI of a Profitability Improvement Project
- How to Present Profitability Data to Your Board (Without Losing the Room)
- How to Price a New Product Using Cost Data
- IAS 2 normal capacity
- IAS 36 impairment and inventory NRV both rest on attributed cost
- IFRS 18 in 2027
- IFRS 8 segment profit is only as good as the cost behind it
- Indirect cost allocation
- Kaplan's complete system
- Logistics Companies
- Manufacturing Margins in 2026
- Marginal Costing vs Absorption Costing
- New Tariffs and Cost Chaos
- Profitability by Channel
- Profitability Is Not an 80/20 Game
- Scenario Modeling for Strategic Decisions
- Strategic Costing vs. Accounting
- TDABC in Professional Services
- The 4 Maturity Levels of Cost Management
- The Data You Need to Build a TDABC Model (And What You Can Skip)
- The Excuse Factory
- The Execution Premium
- The Future of Cost Management
- The Hidden Cost of Complexity
- The return you did not price
- The Top Requirements for a Successful TDABC Project
- The Whale Curve Revisited
- Time is money: the hidden cost of a thousand small orders
- Transforming Dental Clinic Profitability
- What Data Do You Need to Start Activity-Based Costing?
- What Finance Teams Get Wrong About Overhead Allocation
- What Is a Capacity Cost Rate in TDABC and Why Does It Change Everything?
- What Is Cost-to-Serve and How Do You Reduce It?
- What Our TDABC Workshop Participants Learn in 8 Hours
- When small and frequent is right
- Why Excel is Killing Your Profitability Model (And What to Use Instead)
- Why Lean and Six Sigma succeed operationally, fail financially
- Why Value-Based Health Care fails without TDABC
- Why your Balanced Scorecard fails without real cost
- Why Your Best Clients May Be Your Worst - A Cost-to-Serve Analysis
Events10
- Costs, Profitability and AI - TDABC Online Workshop - June 30 & July 1, 2026
- Costs, Profitability and AI - TDABC Online Workshop - October 20-21, 2026
- Events & Workshops
- From Costs to Profits - TDABC + CostCtrl + AI Workshop Brazil - August 25-26, 2026
- TDABC Workshop Lisbon - June 18, 2026
- TDABC Workshop Lisbon - October 15, 2026
- TDABC Workshop Porto - June 16, 2026
- TDABC Workshop Porto - October 13, 2026
- TDABC Workshop, Saudi Arabia 2025
- The Costing Conference, Amsterdam 2025
Case studies6
Where margin hides3
Profitability Lab2
Company 7 pages
More topics 1 pages
Proof
A distributor in New Zealand. €1.335M of cost-to-serve made visible, then halved, and 830 loss-making customers brought down to 295.
Read the case study →Who you would be talking to
Miguel Guimarães, Founding Partner
Cost and profitability practitioner for 25+ years. Presented the Damco cost-to-serve case at Managing for Profit (Amsterdam RAI, December 2009), on the same programme as Robert S. Kaplan.
Call +351 910 313 731
