A margin agent that caught a $240k procurement leak in Week 3
APAC. $500M+ annual revenue. Six-week engagement, fixed scope and fixed price.
What came out of it
Money figures were signed off by the customer's own Finance team, and the rest come from the customer's own systems.
Why the margin drop stayed invisible
The dashboard reported the fall in margin but could not point at a cause.
Margin was down
The dashboard showed the fall. It could not show why.
The answer arrived late
By the time anyone reconstructed the cause, the quarter had closed.
Cost crossed systems
Landed cost moved through several systems before it reached a report.
Contracted versus invoiced
Nobody watched the gap between what was contracted and what was actually invoiced.
Not a job anyone could hold
Watching that gap by hand across that many suppliers was not humanly possible.
What the agent watched, and what Finance got
The agent read the cost fields directly instead of waiting for them to reach a report.
- Contracted priceDay-14 anomaly flagLineage back to source$240k signed off
- Actual invoiceDay-14 anomaly flag
- Fuel surchargeDay-14 anomaly flag
- Landed costLineage back to source
Six weeks, week by week
The lineage came before the agent, which is the part that made the number bankable.
- Week 1
Audit
Two calls. We mapped the estate, the top three decisions and where the friction sat. The customer kept a written one-pager.
- Weeks 2 to 3
Ship the agent
A Claude-powered margin agent watching landed cost, live in 14 days. It flagged a fuel-surcharge anomaly two weeks before close.
- Weeks 4 to 6
Make it defensible
Lineage under every number the agent used, so Finance could trace the claim to source and sign it off rather than take it on trust.
The whole engagement, counted in days
Every date on this page put side by side, measured from kickoff.
From flag to signed-off number
Each step only counts because the one before it held.
- Watch
Landed cost, live
The agent watches landed cost as it moves, not after the quarter closes.
- Flag
Fuel-surcharge anomaly
On day 14 it raised the anomaly the procurement team acted on.
- Trace
Lineage to source
Finance followed the claim back through every number the agent had used.
- Sign off
Finance accepts it
The saving was signed off within 30 days, on evidence rather than trust.
- Bank it
$240k annualised
Annualised procurement savings, and 2.4 points of gross margin recovered before the Q4 board call.
What the Week 1 audit leaves you
The audit is fixed-fee work that stands on its own, whether or not we go further.
Two calls
That is the whole audit.
A map of the estate
Where the data sits and how it moves.
The top three decisions
The ones the business needs the data to support.
Where the friction sits
The points slowing those decisions down today.
A written one-pager
You keep it whether or not we work together.
In the customer's words
The agent did the easy part. The hard part was the lineage discipline. That's what Woodfrog built first, and it's why Finance signed off on the savings in the first month.
The flag landed on day 14
A six-week engagement is 42 days, and the anomaly the procurement team acted on came a third of the way in.
Before you ask
Why is the customer not named?
Anonymised where we have to be, specific everywhere we can be. Reference calls are possible after the audit, subject to the customer agreeing.
What did this cost?
Fixed scope, fixed fee, agreed before Week 1. We give you the number on the audit call once we know the shape of the work, rather than publishing a band that would not apply to you.
Is our situation close enough to this one?
That is exactly what the Week 1 audit answers. Two calls, fixed fee, and you keep a written one-pager whether or not we work together.
Is your shape close to this one?
Two calls, a fixed fee, and a written one-pager you keep either way. We will tell you on the call if we are not the right fit.