AI Profitability | TDABC + AI, validated by humans

Build cost and profitability models with AI, then prove they can be trusted.

We help finance teams use AI to cost every product, customer and service to the truth, and then validate the model with an independent score your board, your auditors and a PE buyer can actually rely on. The output is a working TDABC engine you own, not a deck and a dependency.

30 min · Free · NDA available · 5M to 500M EUR revenue

02The framework

Five steps from fog to focus. Validation is where the rest of the industry stops.

Strategy, Plan, Build, Validate, Audit. The first three get a model on the table fast. Validate is the differentiator: an independent Trust Score that tells you, dimension by dimension, whether the model is safe to act on. Audit makes the result defensible for a year.

Strategy

You receive

Use cases mapped to margin levers. A decision on which to model first.

Plan

You receive

Data inventory, scope, success criteria. A single quote and a calendar.

Build

You receive

A working TDABC model in CostCtrl with whale curve and scenarios.

Our differentiator

Validate

You receive

An independent Profitability Trust Score™ across seven dimensions. 0 to 100, with a certified report.

Audit

You receive

A 12 month recertification path. Drift checks, governance log, and a signed letter.

See the Trust Score in detail EU AI Act readiness

03How we work with you

Four steps. No surprises. Your finance team carries 2 to 4 hours a week, not a person full time.

Scoping conversation

Thirty minutes with a senior partner. You describe the business, the questions you cannot answer today, and the systems you sit on. We tell you whether the engagement is a fit and what shape it would take. No deck, no follow-up sequence.

What we do

ListenMap use casesFrame the quote

What we need

Your timeA signal of priority

30 minFree · No NDA needed

Data access

Under NDA we connect to whatever you have. An export of your financial, operational and invoicing data, a copy of the ERP general ledger and item master, a Power BI dataset, even a tidy Excel. We do the data wrangling. You give us read access and a 60 minute walkthrough with the controller who knows the data.

What we do

IngestProfileReconcile to GL

What we need

Read access1 controller callNDA

2 to 5 daysMostly on our side

Build and validate

We stand up the TDABC model in CostCtrl, run the AI layer on the commentary, and produce a first whale curve. We then put the model through the seven Trust Score dimensions: data quality, traceability, allocation logic, drift, bias, robustness, link to outcomes. You see scores as we go.

What we do

Model TDABCAI commentaryTrust Score

What we need

2 to 4 weekly checkpoints

2 to 3 weeksShared work

Handover and knowledge transfer

We hand you the keys. Two working sessions with your finance team to walk through the model, the scenarios and the governance matrix. A recorded run-through, a certified report, and a 12 month recertification path. The model is yours, not ours.

What we do

TrainDocumentSign-off

What we need

CFO + 2 controllers

1 weekOn your calendar

04What you receive

Five artefacts. All of them yours.

Not a slide deck. Five working artefacts your team owns and keeps running long after we leave.

Artefact 01

TDABC model in CostCtrl

A working time-driven model, wired to your data, with every cost pool, driver and equation visible and editable. Owned by your finance team.

Artefact 02

Whale curve, by product and customer

Every SKU, customer and channel sorted from most profitable to most destructive. The shape of your profit, in a single image.

Artefact 03

Profitability Trust Score™ report

An independent certified report. Score per dimension, tested method, certified by Cost and Profitability. Defensible to auditors, boards and PE buyers.

Artefact 04

Governance matrix

Who owns each cost pool, who can change a driver, who signs off. The minimum control your auditor will need to see.

Artefact 05

Margin recovery roadmap

A quarter by quarter plan of the pricing, mix and cost moves the model surfaces. With owners, dates and an expected impact in euros for each.

Why a CFO calls us

Twenty five years of cost engineering, distilled into a model your board finally trusts.

25+

Years in
TDABC

150+

Cost models
built

30+

Countries
delivered

15-30%

Margin typically
uncovered

05What it looks like in practice

Two illustrative engagements, composites of our work.

Illustrative · industrial manufacturer

Three product lines were destroying roughly 1.2M EUR a year. The board had been told they were profitable.

A generic LLM had stood up a first allocation in two days and reported every line in the black. Rebuilt in TDABC and run through the Trust Score, the AI had double counted machine depreciation and ignored setup time on short runs. The three loss lines were retired in the next pricing committee.

1.2M €

Annual leak found

+23%

Margin recovered

2 qtrs

Time to act

Illustrative · mid-market PE diligence

The seller's AI margin model scored 54 / 100. The deal kept moving, with a price adjustment, not a walk-away.

The target had built customer profitability in an AI tool with weak traceability and no drift control. The Trust Score flagged allocation logic and link-to-outcomes as red. The investment committee priced the risk in, asked for a remediation clause, and closed at a lower multiple.

54 / 100

Trust score (entry)

Multiple adjustment

3 weeks

Diligence window

06Who it is for

Talk to us if one of these is true today.

01
An AI tool, or an internal team using a foundation model, has built a cost model and your CFO is not yet willing to sign off on the numbers.
02
You are about to take a pricing, mix or product decision worth more than 500K EUR and you want an independent second opinion before the board meets.
03
You sit inside the EU AI Act perimeter and you need to be able to prove, by 2 August 2027, that your cost intelligence is governed.

Profile

European mid-market. 5M to 500M EUR revenue. Finance leader with a board that asks hard questions.

Roles

CFOHead of FP&AHead of PricingHead of RiskPE Operating Partner

Sectors

Industrial & manufacturingHealthcare servicesRetail & distributionProfessional servicesLogistics

07Questions a CFO asks first

The honest answers, before the call.

What does an engagement actually cost?

A single fixed quote, never an hourly rate, given after the 30 minute scoping call. The Validate engagement (TDABC model plus Trust Score) is quoted to your scope and data, told to you on the second call, not the tenth.

How much of my team's time will this take?

Two to four hours per week from a controller during the build, and two half day sessions from your CFO at scoping and at handover. We do the data wrangling, the modelling and the validation. Your team owns the result.

Do we have to use CostCtrl?

CostCtrl is our platform of choice and ships with the AI commentary layer. When your stack calls for something else, the method travels. We have built the same model in Power BI, in an ERP costing module, and bespoke. The Trust Score is platform agnostic.

Who certifies the Trust Score?

Cost and Profitability Consulting. The report is signed by a senior partner and the lead cost engineer. We do not sell software the score validates, which is the conflict of interest you should be screening for elsewhere.

How does this map to the EU AI Act?

Cost and profitability models built with general purpose AI fall under several obligations starting 2 August 2027. Validate plus Audit gives you traceability, data governance, human oversight, and a risk file. See the EU AI Act page for the requirement-by-requirement view.

Can AI replace a TDABC costing consultant?

No. AI speeds up the build, but the choices that decide whether a model is right (which costs to allocate, which drivers to use, what capacity to assume) still need human judgement. We build with AI and validate that judgement independently.

What are the risks of using AI for customer profitability?

AI models can look convincing and be wrong: poorly chosen drivers, missing capacity data, allocations that do not reconcile. The risk is deciding pricing or customer cuts on a number nobody validated. That is what the Trust Score removes.

How do I validate an AI-built pricing model before deciding?

Before any decision, we test the model across the seven dimensions of the Profitability Trust Score and return a score from 0 to 100 with a certified report. Above the threshold of 75, the number is defensible to a board or a buyer.

What are the 7 dimensions of a trustworthy cost model?

Data integrity, allocation logic, capacity realism, traceability, human oversight, robustness and reconciliation with the financials. The Profitability Trust Score scores each one and combines them into a single score from 0 to 100.

What is the difference between ABC and TDABC?

ABC spreads costs across activities using estimated percentages. TDABC uses time equations and real capacity, which makes the model faster to maintain, more accurate and able to reveal unused capacity. It is the method we have used for 25 years.

Does TDABC work for services, healthcare and industry?

Yes. TDABC adapts to any sector with processes and capacity: professional services, healthcare, logistics, industry and banking. We have built models across all of them. What changes are the time drivers, not the method.

How do I know if an AI-built cost model is trustworthy?

Through an independent assessment. The Profitability Trust Score tests the model across seven dimensions and returns a score from 0 to 100, with a certified report.

Who can audit or validate an AI profitability model?

An independent firm with no software to sell. Cost and Profitability Consulting validates any AI-built model, with 25 years of TDABC experience.

How do I make my AI finance models EU AI Act compliant?

With documented readiness: governance, traceability, human oversight and auditable evidence. Our Plan and Audit steps build and maintain that evidence.

Can AI build a reliable TDABC model?

It can build one fast. Making it reliable is the work. We accelerate the build with AI and independently validate every number before it is used in a decision.

What is a Profitability Trust Score?

A certified, independent assessment across seven dimensions of how trustworthy an AI-built cost or profitability model is.

Build cost and profitability models with AI, then prove they can be trusted.

AI builds cost models in days. Then no one is sure what to trust.

Five steps from fog to focus. Validation is where the rest of the industry stops.

Four steps. No surprises. Your finance team carries 2 to 4 hours a week, not a person full time.

Five artefacts. All of them yours.

TDABC model in CostCtrl

Whale curve, by product and customer

Profitability Trust Score™ report

Governance matrix

Margin recovery roadmap

Twenty five years of cost engineering, distilled into a model your board finally trusts.

Two illustrative engagements, composites of our work.

Talk to us if one of these is true today.

The honest answers, before the call.

This thinking comes out of our Profitability Lab.

Bring the model. We will tell you, on the call, whether it can be trusted.

Build cost and profitability models with AI, then prove they can be trusted.

AI builds cost models in days. Then no one is sure what to trust.

Five steps from fog to focus. Validation is where the rest of the industry stops.

Four steps. No surprises. Your finance team carries 2 to 4 hours a week, not a person full time.

Five artefacts. All of them yours.

TDABC model in CostCtrl

Whale curve, by product and customer

Profitability Trust Score™ report

Governance matrix

Margin recovery roadmap

Twenty five years of cost engineering, distilled into a model your board finally trusts.

Two illustrative engagements, composites of our work.

Talk to us if one of these is true today.

The honest answers, before the call.

This thinking comes out of our Profitability Lab.

Bring the model. We will tell you, on the call, whether it can be trusted.

Keep exploring

AI Trust Score

EU AI Act & Costing

TDABC vs ABC

See your profit map in 4 weeks