Who We Are

Dedicated to making world-class cost management accessible to every business, from our home in Porto to clients around the world.

Our Story

Founded in Porto, Cost and Profitability Consulting was born from a simple vision: to bring Time-Driven Activity-Based Costing (TDABC) within reach of every business, regardless of size.

Our founders, Miguel Guimarães and Irina Costa, recognized that many SMEs and mid-market companies lacked the tools and expertise to truly understand their cost structures. They partnered to create a consulting practice that combines deep technical knowledge with pragmatic implementation methodologies.

Today, we serve businesses globally, helping them unlock profitability insights and make data-driven decisions. Our work is grounded in rigour, transparency, and genuine partnership with every client.

Our Mission

Make world-class cost management accessible to every business, enabling informed decisions and sustainable profitability growth.

Our Approach

Hands-on, data-driven, and tailored TDABC implementation that fits your business reality, not a one-size-fits-all template.

Our Values

Transparency, rigour, and partnership. We believe in honest dialogue, meticulous work, and relationships built on trust and results.

Meet the Founders

Miguel Guimarães

Founder & TDABC Specialist

Engineer by training, Miguel founded Cost and Profitability Consulting to bring Time-Driven Activity-Based Costing to SMEs. With global client experience, he leads our methodology development and client engagements. He is also the co-founder and the architect behind CostCtrl, the most innovative cloud-based AI-driven software to implement TDABC.

Irina Costa

Co-Founder, Admin and Business Development

Irina drives the administrative and commercial side of Cost and Profitability Consulting. With a strong background in business management, she oversees client relationships, partnerships, and operations, ensuring every engagement runs smoothly from first contact to final delivery.

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Featured Case Studies

Each engagement follows our proven TDABC methodology, adapted to the specific challenges of the industry and organization.

Logistics & Distribution

European 3PL Provider

A major European third-party logistics provider with 12 distribution centers struggled to understand true cost-to-serve across 2,000+ customer accounts. Traditional costing showed uniform margins, masking significant profitability differences.

Using TDABC, we mapped 47 distinct activities across warehousing, transport, and value-added services. The whale curve analysis revealed that 18% of customers generated 140% of total profit.

22% margin improvement in 8 months

Healthcare

Multi-Specialty Hospital Group

A hospital group with 5 facilities needed to understand procedure-level profitability across departments. Existing cost allocation methods spread overhead evenly, making all departments appear equally profitable.

Our TDABC model traced resource consumption at the procedure level, identifying that outpatient orthopedic procedures were subsidizing underperforming service lines. Capacity utilization analysis revealed 34% idle time in key departments.

15% cost reduction, 28% better capacity use

Manufacturing

Automotive Parts Manufacturer

A mid-size automotive parts manufacturer with 800+ SKUs couldn't determine which products truly contributed to profitability. High-volume products appeared profitable, but hidden setup, quality control, and logistics costs eroded margins.

TDABC analysis mapped machine time, labor, setups, and quality inspection for each product family. We discovered that 35% of SKUs destroyed value, while the top 20% generated 180% of profit.

18% profitability increase, 15% SKU rationalization

Financial Services

Regional Banking Network

A regional bank with 45 branches needed to understand channel and product profitability. Branch-level P&L reporting didn't capture the true cost of serving different customer segments across digital and physical channels.

We built a TDABC model covering 62 banking processes across branch, digital, and back-office operations. Analysis showed digital-first customers were 3.2x more profitable than branch-dependent customers of similar revenue.

20% improvement in customer-level margins

The Whale Curve Pattern

Across industries, we consistently find that a small percentage of customers or products generate the vast majority of profit, while a significant portion actually destroys value.

Top 20%

Middle 50%

Bottom 30%

Generate 150-200% of profit

Break even or minimal contribution

Destroy 50-100% of profit

Why This Matters

Without granular cost analysis, organizations make decisions based on revenue alone, missing the hidden costs that erode profitability. TDABC reveals the true economic picture, enabling targeted actions: protect and grow your best relationships, fix or reprice marginal ones, and strategically manage unprofitable accounts.

Common Outcomes Across Industries

Metric	Before TDABC	After TDABC
Cost visibility	Department-level averages	Activity-level precision
Pricing accuracy	Cost-plus or market-based	Customer and product-specific
Capacity utilization	Unknown idle capacity	Quantified and optimized
Customer profitability	Revenue-based assumptions	True cost-to-serve analysis
Decision confidence	Gut feeling + averages	Data-driven with full cost picture

Metric

Before TDABC

After TDABC

Cost visibility

Department-level averages

Activity-level precision

Pricing accuracy

Cost-plus or market-based

Customer and product-specific

Capacity utilization

Unknown idle capacity

Quantified and optimized

Customer profitability

Revenue-based assumptions

True cost-to-serve analysis

Decision confidence

Gut feeling + averages

Data-driven with full cost picture