Margin Drift Screener

Free Margin Drift Screener — answer 8 questions about your service vendor spend and get an instant estimate of recoverable leakage. For CFOs of $30–150M industrial manufacturers.

What is the Margin Drift Screener

A free 8-question screener that estimates recoverable margin drift in your service vendor spend before committing to a full diagnostic. Designed for CFOs of $30–150M industrial manufacturers, distributors, and B2B SaaS businesses who want a quick read on AP recovery audit, contract compliance audit, and freight invoice audit potential — without sharing invoice data or signing an NDA upfront.

How it works

Provide approximate annual spend by category (freight, MRO, contract labour, IT, maintenance, professional services), invoice volume, vendor count, and the maturity of existing controls. The screener returns an estimated recoverable range expressed in dollars, and the categories most likely to harbour leakage based on benchmarks from 50+ prior engagements.

Why screen before the full diagnostic

A Margin Drift Diagnostic is fixed-scope and 2–4 weeks, but it still costs internal time to gather data and align stakeholders. The screener takes 5 minutes and tells you whether the recoverable amount is meaningful relative to your finance team's capacity. If the screener returns $50K of estimated leakage, the diagnostic isn't worth it; if it returns $400K, it almost certainly is.

What the screener covers

Five service-vendor categories where margin drift accumulates: freight (fuel-surcharge formulas, accessorial creep, mis-tendered routes), MRO and indirect spend (rate-card non-enforcement, off-contract buys), contract labour (NTE overruns, rate-card drift), IT and SaaS (auto-renewal pricing creep, unused seats), and maintenance contracts (scope creep, duplicate parts billing). The screener weights each category by typical leakage rates we observe.

How accurate is the estimate

The screener is a directional estimate calibrated against engagement outcomes from prior clients of similar size and industry. It is intentionally conservative — the actual recoverable amount in a full diagnostic is typically within the screener's estimated range, often at the upper bound when contract enforcement has lapsed for several years.

Next step

If the screener returns a meaningful estimate, scope a full Margin Drift Diagnostic — fixed-scope, 2–4 weeks, you retain 100% of recoveries (no contingency fee). If the screener returns a small estimate, we will tell you that openly — the screener exists to qualify engagements out as much as in.

Frequently asked questions

Is the screener really free?

Yes. No card, no email gate, no follow-up sales pressure. We use the screener to qualify which businesses are likely to benefit from a full diagnostic. Most screener completions never convert to engagements, and that is fine.

How accurate is the estimate?

Directionally accurate within a range. Calibrated against actual recovery outcomes from prior engagements. Conservative by design — actual recoverable amounts in the full diagnostic are typically within the estimated range, often at the upper end when contracts have not been enforced for several years.

Do I need to share invoices to use the screener?

No. The screener only needs aggregate numbers — total annual spend by category, invoice volume, vendor count. Invoice-level data is required for the full Margin Drift Diagnostic but never for the screener.

How long does the screener take?

Most CFOs and controllers complete it in 5 minutes if they have the spend categorisation handy from their general ledger or AP system. Even rough estimates produce a useful directional result.