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Beyond COGS Margins

Cost-to-Serve Analyzer

Find the profit your margins are hiding

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Cost-to-Serve Analyzer Demo

 

Features List

5

Cost Components

8

Excel Tabs

3

Built-in Scenarios

Why Finance Leaders Use This Skill

See Past Gross Margins

Most P&Ls stop at COGS. This skill allocates all five cost layers to every customer and product, so you see what's really profitable and what's quietly losing money.

Formula Driven Excel

Every cell in the output workbook uses live Excel formulas. Change an assumption and watch the entire model update. No hardcoded values, no black boxes.

Grow, Maintain, Harvest, Exit

Each customer and product gets a portfolio action based on their fully-loaded CTS margin. You'll know exactly where to invest and where to cut.

Built-in Scenario Simulator

Model price increases, DSO reductions, and cost savings with three ready-made scenarios. Conservative, Base Case, and Aggressive presets included.

Spot Four Hidden Patterns

The skill automatically flags revenue-rich margin-poor accounts, subsidized segments, long-tail SKU drag, and working capital destruction. These patterns appear in 90%+ of analyses.

What You Get

  • Claude Skill File

    The .skill file you install in your Claude profile for instant access

  • How-To Guide (PDF)

    9-page walkthrough covering the 5-Component Framework, each Excel tab, the four CTS patterns, and recommended actions

  • Sample Dataset

    30,000 transactions across 500 customers and 150 products so you can practice before using your own data

  • Sample Output (8-Tab Excel Workbook)

    Pre-built analysis of the sample dataset showing exactly what the skill produces: Executive Summary, CTS by Customer, CTS by Product, CTS by Segment, Working Capital, Scenario Simulator, Assumptions, and Original Data

  • Installation Video

    Short walkthrough showing how to add the skill to your Claude profile

  • Demo Video

    End-to-end use case walkthrough from data upload to finished analysis

When To Use This Tool

Quarterly Portfolio Review

Run CTS analysis on your latest transaction data to see which customers and products fall into Grow, Maintain, Harvest, or Exit. Use the results to guide resource allocation and account strategy.

Pricing Decisions

Find customers generating strong revenue but weak fully-loaded margins. The skill flags these accounts automatically and quantifies how much repricing or SLA restructuring could recover.

SKU Rationalization

Identify the bottom 50% of SKUs that contribute less than 5% of total profit. Get a clear list of candidates for discontinuation, bundling, or minimum order quantities.

Working Capital Improvement

See which customers are paying late and how much that costs you in capital drag. The working capital tab ranks every customer by DSO overdue and annual WC cost.

Board & Executive Presentations

Use the Scenario Simulator to model Conservative, Base Case, and Aggressive improvement paths. Show the executive team exactly how much margin improvement each lever delivers.

The 5-Component CTS Framework

Component What It Covers Typical % of Revenue Why It Matters
1. Direct Costs COGS, freight, packaging, storage, commissions 50–70% The only layer most companies track
2. Support Costs Customer service, account management, technical support 0.2–3% Enterprise accounts consume disproportionately
3. Transaction Costs Order processing, picking, packing, invoicing, returns 0.3–2% High-frequency small orders add up fast
4. Complexity Costs Custom SKUs, manual workflows, integrations, compliance 3–7% Often the largest hidden cost layer
5. Working Capital Cost of capital tied in AR, inventory holding costs 0.5–2% Late payers destroy cash flow silently

Common Questions

Stop Guessing Which Customers are Profitable

Get the full 5 Component CTS Analysis with formula-driven Excel output, scenario modeling, and portfolio segmentation. Updated for 2026.

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