Cost & Margin Intelligence

Expertise

Accelerate performance with intelligent cost and margin data

Do you have the cost and margin information you need to make the decisions necessary to drive your competitive advantage? To survive and thrive in today’s highly competitive global marketplace, you need to understand where you make money — and where you don’t. Big data alone won’t reveal which products and services actually contribute to your success, which customers are profitable, or what changes you need to make across the enterprise to increase profitability. We’ll arm you with intelligent data so you can achieve optimal operational and financial performance.

Our cost and margin intelligence experts understand that no two organizations are the same, so we tailor our solutions to your specific environment to accurately model material, labor, and overhead costs based on key drivers like yield, productivity, and capacity utilization. We combine our deep industry expertise and experience with our customized data analytics models to provide you with pragmatic, focused, and actionable insights.

Whether you’re a domestic organization or a billion-dollar global company — or whether you’re public, private, or private equity-owned — we’ve seen it all. Our experts have a deep understanding of industry trends and issues, and we’ll work with you to accelerate performance. Let us help you take a new approach to cost and margin intelligence. Contact us today.

Solutions

We apply an activity-based approach to build tailored, accurate product and service costs. Our support enables improved inventory valuation, cost estimates for quoting, and rationalization to shed or reprice underperformers — so that you can invest in the right areas to reduce costs. Our services include:

Margin intelligence assessment

Does your technology and costing methodology support reliable margin insights? Let’s find out.

Labor and overhead rate models

We develop financial models to help you calculate labor and overhead rates.

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Inventory valuation improvement

We combine costing best practices with GAAP and IFRS knowledge to accurately value inventory.

Cost accounting support

Struggling to find skilled cost accountants? Work with our Costing as a Service (CaaS) team.

Margin and operations analytics

Get real-time insights into operations to support pricing, rationalization, and performance.

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Carve-out analysis

Drive greater accuracy and transaction readiness for carve-outs with our costing expertise.

Insights

MORE INSIGHTS

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Let the numbers tell the story: Strategic involvement in thesis investing

Video / 9 min watch

Business professionals huddled around a computer smiling while reviewing information on a tablet device

Private equity value creation: Realize your investment thesis

Article / 7 min read

Business professionals talking in a modern conference room.

Value creation: Revenue growth strategies for private equity portfolios

Article / 4 min read

Cost to serve: Improve decision-making, competitiveness, and profitability

Article / 5 min read

Business professional inspecting a factory floor.

When cost models fall behind: A CFO’s guide to adaptive strategy

Article / 8 min read

Safeguarding medical device margins in inflationary times

Article / 6 min read

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Invest in the right products. Target the right customers. Optimize your organization.

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Case Studies

SEE ALL CASE STUDIES

Team members having a meeting at a table

August 08, 2025

Operations restructuring provides cost savings

Intelligent cost and margin data helped a global manufacturer achieve $100M in cost savings through equipment consolidation and optimization, improved inventory management practices, and process improvement.

Case Study / 1 min read

Business professionals having a meeting together while looking at a laptop computer screen

May 16, 2024

Gorilla Glue enhances decision-making with cost and margin intelligence

Gorilla Glue needed to establish and integrate best-in-class standard costing and cost-to-serve metrics in a new ERP system. Plante Moran answered their call for guidance.

Case Study / 2 min read

March 26, 2024

Cost and margin intelligence solutions for automotive supplier

Automotive supplier improves costing information leading to confidence in product decisions and reduced lead time.

Case Study / 1 min read

Client Experience

It’s not just what we can do for you — it’s how we do it

Our consultants have walked in your shoes and understand the challenges of developing accurate, and timely cost and margin intelligence. This firsthand experience, along with our personal approach to each project, means we’ll provide you with actionable solutions, not just a big-picture numbers viewpoint. You can also trust our advice will be independent. Because we don’t sell costing software or believe in a one-size-fits-all approach, we can provide objective, third-party insights to help you succeed.

According to Jon Wood, our cost and margin intelligence practice leader, a relationship with us can give you confidence and peace of mind. “I value our team’s dedication to each client. We dig in and really get to know their needs and objectives. It’s not just about solving the issue at hand but making sure we provide practical solutions and arming our clients with the necessary tools and insights for confident, decision-making that supports their strategic and operational goals.”

W. Dodd Russell

CEO, Skilled Manufacturing, Inc.

I have a long-term relationship with the firm and, as a result, have high expectations. The Cost & Margin Intelligence team are consummate professionals. The team listened to our needs, goals, and ideas. They designed an innovative costing model solution that simplified a complex process and allowed us to expand our operating model, enter new business markets, and as a result, grow our business and increase revenue. Jon and Eric knocked it out of the park and brought a new approach to the table that helped our team better understand our data and act on insights.

Justin Grout

Director of Operations Finance, The Gorilla Glue Company

We brought in Plante Moran to help us compile our costing data into a robust information system. We wanted to have a holistic understanding of our overhead costs down to the brand, pillar, and SKU. It grew from there. Now that we have this data, what can we do with it? Can we determine our shipping, handling, transportation, and warehousing costs at that same level of detail? After we finished the costing project, we wanted to know our cost to serve, so we asked Plante Moran to help with that as well.
They brought in experts who had tremendous experience not only within their areas of specialty but also with consumer packaged goods (CPG) companies. Their breadth of knowledge quite honestly exceeded our in-house capabilities. They identified critical items that we hadn’t considered, which allowed us to streamline the project and get it done faster and more efficiently.
For both projects, the team exceeded our expectations as well as what we had laid out in the project plan initially. Everyone at Gorilla Glue had a very positive impression of the collaboration and knowledge base from the primary team. We were able to get the project done two weeks early, which was critical because it allowed us to test our new standard methodology in our ERP system. From a timing standpoint and project deliverable standpoint, Plante Moran over-delivered on both. There were no surprises, the project was finished quickly and efficiently, and they really felt like an extension of our team. The level of partnership was incredible. Plante Moran showed up, got it done, and we feel well equipped as we grow and our company changes.

Our Team

MEET OUR TEAM

Jon Wood

Principal