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.

Ready to discover your true costs?

Get Your Free Assessment

The Logistics Profitability Challenge

Logistics companies operate with thin margins and enormous complexity. Thousands of customers, each with different service requirements, delivery frequencies, and handling needs, make it nearly impossible to understand true cost-to-serve using traditional methods.

Why Revenue Hides the Truth

In logistics, the largest revenue customers are often assumed to be the most profitable. Our analysis consistently reveals the opposite: high-revenue accounts frequently demand special handling, rush deliveries, custom packaging, and complex routing that erode margins. Meanwhile, mid-size accounts with standard service requirements often deliver the strongest profit per euro of revenue.

Our Logistics TDABC Approach

🚚

Operations Mapping

Map all logistics activities: receiving, putaway, storage, picking, packing, loading, transport, last-mile delivery, returns processing, and customer service. Capture time and resource requirements per activity.

📋

Service Level Costing

Quantify the true cost of different service levels: standard vs. express delivery, temperature-controlled vs. ambient, dedicated vs. shared transport. Service upgrades that appear minor often carry significant hidden costs.

🗺

Route Profitability

Analyze cost and profitability by route, combining vehicle costs, driver time, fuel, tolls, and delivery density. Low-density routes with scattered drops can cost 3-5x more per delivery than optimized urban routes.

🏢

Warehouse Analytics

Break down warehouse costs by activity: receiving dock time, putaway labor, storage cube utilization, pick path efficiency, packing complexity, and staging. Different products and customers consume warehouse resources very differently.

👥

Customer Cost-to-Serve

Build a complete cost-to-serve profile for each customer: order frequency, average order size, delivery requirements, handling complexity, return rates, and support needs. Aggregate to see the full picture.

📈

Whale Curve Analysis

Construct the customer profitability whale curve. In logistics, we typically find that 15-20% of customers generate 140-180% of total profit, while 25-35% of customers actively destroy value.

Success Story: European 3PL Provider

The Challenge

A major European 3PL with 12 distribution centers and 2,000+ customer accounts was experiencing margin decline despite revenue growth. Management couldn't explain why winning new business wasn't translating to better profits. Traditional costing showed nearly uniform margins across the customer base.

22%

Margin improvement within 8 months of implementation

Top 15%

Middle 50%

Bottom 35%

Generated 160% of profit

Contributed minimal margin

Destroyed 60% of generated profit

The Outcome

TDABC analysis mapped 47 distinct activities across warehousing, transport, and value-added services. The whale curve showed 18% of customers generated 140% of profit. Armed with customer-level cost data, the company repriced 340 accounts, restructured service agreements for 180 customers, and exited 45 consistently unprofitable accounts. Result: 22% margin improvement in 8 months with 3% revenue reduction.

Logistics Outcomes Comparison

Area	Before TDABC	After TDABC
Customer profitability	Revenue-based ranking	True cost-to-serve per customer
Route economics	Average cost per km/stop	Route-specific cost with density factor
Service level pricing	Flat surcharges	Activity-based service cost
Warehouse allocation	Cost per pallet/sqm	Activity cost per handling unit
Contract negotiations	Market rate benchmarks	Customer-specific cost + margin data

Area

Before TDABC

After TDABC

Customer profitability

Revenue-based ranking

True cost-to-serve per customer

Route economics

Average cost per km/stop

Route-specific cost with density factor

Service level pricing

Flat surcharges

Activity-based service cost

Warehouse allocation

Cost per pallet/sqm

Activity cost per handling unit

Contract negotiations

Market rate benchmarks

Customer-specific cost + margin data