Capability template for finance and accounting
Product configuration margin sheet
When sales prepares a quote for a product configuration, the commercial owner and finance lead get one worksheet: the quoted price, the costed bill of materials, assembly and freight, and the allocations, with every unquoted part, one-off charge and uncertain volume listed as an open assumption.
Listed under
Add it to a workflow in the Fully Powered Planner, beside the teams and roles that will run it. Book a fit call
The outcome
Before a configuration is quoted, the people who own the price see what it rests on. The worksheet sets the proposed unit price beside the cost of the parts, the assembly time, the freight and any one-off charges your own rules spread over the units, and shows the margin that is left and where it stands against your margin floor.
What the costs do not yet cover is written down, not hidden. A part with no quote, a tooling charge with no rule for spreading it, a volume that is only a forecast, a cost older than your limit and a cost type nobody supplied each appear as a numbered assumption, with the amount at stake where one can be worked out. The worksheet shows how much room the margin leaves before the floor, so the owner can see whether the open items could change the answer.
Finance validates how each cost was treated. The commercial owner decides the price. Engineering confirms the configuration. The worksheet does none of these, and nothing in it goes to the customer.
Who starts the work, and when
Whoever prepares the quote in sales, or the sales operations coordinator, starts it when a configuration is about to be quoted, using the costed bill of materials and the estimates on hand that day. It is run again when a part is quoted, the quantity moves or the proposed price changes, so the sheet follows the quote as it stands.
What they supply
- The quote request: the configuration, the quantity, the proposed unit price and whether the volume is committed or only forecast.
- The costed bill of materials: each part, how many go into one unit, its unit cost, how that cost is known and the date of the cost.
- The assembly estimate: the steps, the minutes for each and the hourly rate.
- The freight inputs: units per shipment and the cost of a shipment.
- Other costs: tooling, certification, support, warranty and similar charges.
- Your approved allocation rules for those costs.
- The settings: today's date, the currency, your margin floor, the age at which a cost is stale, an optional second volume and the people who decide.
What comes out
One worksheet in a fixed order: the quote, the materials, the assembly, the freight, the other costs and how each was allocated, the margin and its position against the floor, the volume case if one was supplied, the numbered assumptions, and the decisions for the finance lead and the commercial owner. A section with nothing in it says "None."; a file that was not supplied, a margin floor that is not set and a volume case that was not asked for are each said so plainly.
The worksheet stops rather than guesses when a column header does not match, a unit cost is missing for a line that says it has one, or the currency differs between files. A part with no cost is never counted as zero.
An invented example
Illustrative example with invented data. The company, the product, the parts, the costs, the rules and the roles below are made up. The company is Alder Fen Devices, an invented maker of field gateways; Q-2611 is an invented quote. Today's date is 2026-11-10 and the currency is dollars. The sheet is run by the sales operations coordinator for the commercial owner and the finance lead.
What the sales operations coordinator supplies
Quote request:
quote_id,configuration,quantity,unit_price,volume_basis
Q-2611,Field gateway kit with 4G module and outdoor enclosure,400,412.00,forecast
Costed bill of materials:
line,part_number,description,qty_per_unit,unit_cost,cost_status,cost_date
1,GW-100,Main board,1,86.40,standard,2026-09-30
2,CM-4G,Cellular module,1,31.75,quoted,2026-10-20
3,EN-OUT,Outdoor enclosure,1,24.60,quoted,2026-10-12
4,PS-12,Power supply,1,9.85,standard,2026-03-02
5,AN-4G,Antenna,2,4.30,estimate,2026-10-28
6,CB-HRN,Wiring harness,1,,unquoted,
7,SC-M3,Screw kit,1,1.20,standard,2026-09-30
8,LB-GW,Product label,1,0.35,standard,2026-09-30
Assembly estimate:
step,description,minutes_per_unit,rate_per_hour
A1,Board test and flash,12,54.00
A2,Enclosure fit and wiring,25,54.00
A3,Final test and pack,18,48.00
Freight inputs:
lane,units_per_shipment,shipment_cost,cost_status
Plant to customer by pallet,40,520.00,estimate
Other costs:
item,cost_type,amount,cost_status
Enclosure insert mould,tooling,18000.00,quoted
Radio certification for the 4G variant,certification,6500.00,estimate
Support allowance,support,,standard
Allocation rules:
cost_type,method,value
tooling,spread_over_units,1000
support,percent_of_price,3.0
Settings:
Currency: dollars
Today: 2026-11-10
Margin floor: 35 percent of price
Cost age limit: 180 days
Alternative units for the volume case: 400
Cost types to look for: tooling, support, warranty, certification
Finance lead: finance lead. Commercial owner: commercial owner. Run by: sales operations coordinator.
Sourcing: sourcing lead. Engineering: engineering lead.
The alternative of 400 units is the quote quantity on purpose. The volume case reprices the tooling at the volume actually quoted, instead of the 1,000 units the rule assumes, and leaves every other figure alone.
What comes out
PRODUCT CONFIGURATION MARGIN SHEET: Q-2611, Field gateway kit with 4G module and outdoor enclosure
For: commercial owner and finance lead. Prepared 2026-11-10 by the sales operations coordinator from the files supplied. Currency dollars.
Quote
400 units, volume forecast. Proposed price 412.00 per unit; 164,800.00 in all.
Materials: 7 of 8 bill lines costed
1 GW-100, 1 x 86.40 = 86.40 (standard, costed 2026-09-30)
2 CM-4G, 1 x 31.75 = 31.75 (quoted, costed 2026-10-20)
3 EN-OUT, 1 x 24.60 = 24.60 (quoted, costed 2026-10-12)
4 PS-12, 1 x 9.85 = 9.85 (standard, costed 2026-03-02)
5 AN-4G, 2 x 4.30 = 8.60 (estimate, costed 2026-10-28)
7 SC-M3, 1 x 1.20 = 1.20 (standard, costed 2026-09-30)
8 LB-GW, 1 x 0.35 = 0.35 (standard, costed 2026-09-30)
Unquoted, not in the total: 6 CB-HRN, 1 per unit.
Materials per unit: 162.75
Assembly
A1: 12 minutes at 54.00 an hour = 10.80
A2: 25 minutes at 54.00 an hour = 22.50
A3: 18 minutes at 48.00 an hour = 14.40
Assembly per unit: 47.70
Freight
Plant to customer by pallet: 520.00 for 40 units = 13.00 per unit (estimate)
Freight per unit: 13.00
Other costs
Enclosure insert mould, tooling, 18,000.00: spread over 1,000 units = 18.00 per unit
Radio certification for the 4G variant, certification, 6,500.00: not allocated, no rule for certification
Support allowance, support: 3.0 percent of price = 12.36 per unit
Other costs per unit: 30.36. Unallocated: 6,500.00
Cost types not supplied: warranty
Margin
Cost per unit: 253.81 (materials 162.75 + assembly 47.70 + freight 13.00 + other costs 30.36).
Margin per unit: 158.19, 38.4 percent of price; 63,276.00 on 400 units.
Margin floor 35 percent: at or above. Room before the floor: 13.99 per unit.
Volume case: 400 units
Enclosure insert mould: 18,000.00 over 400 units = 45.00 per unit
Cost per unit 280.81. Margin per unit 131.19, 31.8 percent; 52,476.00 on 400 units. Floor 35 percent: below; short of the floor by 13.01 per unit.
Assumptions and gaps
1. Unquoted part: line 6 CB-HRN, wiring harness, 1 per unit, has no cost. The margin above leaves it out.
2. Estimates in the total: line 5 AN-4G 8.60 per unit, freight 13.00 per unit and the assembly estimate 47.70 per unit; 69.30 per unit in all.
3. Stale cost: line 4 PS-12, costed 2026-03-02, 253 days before today; the limit is 180 days.
4. Volume: forecast. The tooling rule spreads 18,000.00 over 1,000 units; the quote is for 400.
5. Unallocated: radio certification, 6,500.00, estimate, with no rule. It is not in the margin; for scale only, 16.25 per unit at 400 units.
6. Cost type not supplied: warranty.
Decisions
For the finance lead, on cost treatment: 6
1. Assumption 1. The wiring harness has no cost, and the room before the floor is 13.99 per unit. Whether sourcing should be asked for its cost before the price is decided.
2. Assumption 2. Estimates make up 69.30 of the 253.81 cost per unit. Whether estimates belong in the total for this quote.
3. Assumption 3. The PS-12 standard cost is 253 days old against a 180-day limit. Whether the standard cost still holds.
4. Assumption 4. The tooling rule spreads over 1,000 units and the forecast is 400. At 400 the spread is 45.00 per unit and the margin is 31.8 percent. Whether the rule applies at this volume.
5. Assumption 5. Certification, 6,500.00, has no rule and is outside the margin. At 400 units it would be 16.25 per unit, more than the 13.99 of room. Which rule applies to certification.
6. Assumption 6. No warranty cost was supplied. Whether warranty is nil for this configuration or missing.
For the commercial owner, on price: 1
7. Margin 38.4 percent against a 35 percent floor, with 13.99 per unit of room; 31.8 percent and 13.01 per unit short in the volume case. Whether to approve 412.00 per unit.
Not confirmed here: engineering has not confirmed the configuration as listed.
The sheet quotes nothing to the customer.
Every figure traces to the files supplied on 2026-11-10. The sheet changes no records, approves no price and sends nothing.
How the figures were reached
Seven bill lines have a cost; line 6 has none and is left out, not counted as zero. The extended costs are 86.40, 31.75, 24.60, 9.85, 8.60 (2 x 4.30), 1.20 and 0.35, which add to 162.75. Assembly is 12/60 x 54.00 = 10.80, 25/60 x 54.00 = 22.50 and 18/60 x 48.00 = 14.40, which add to 47.70. Freight is 520.00 / 40 = 13.00. Tooling is 18,000.00 / 1,000 = 18.00; support is 3.0 percent of 412.00 = 12.36; they add to 30.36. Certification has no rule, so 6,500.00 stays out. Cost per unit is 162.75 + 47.70 + 13.00 + 30.36 = 253.81, and the margin is 412.00 - 253.81 = 158.19, which is 38.4 percent of 412.00. On 400 units that is 63,276.00, and revenue is 164,800.00. The floor is 35 percent of 412.00 = 144.20, so the room is 158.19 - 144.20 = 13.99. In the volume case tooling is 18,000.00 / 400 = 45.00, so the cost is 253.81 + 27.00 = 280.81, the margin is 131.19, which is 31.8 percent and 52,476.00 on 400 units, and the shortfall is 144.20 - 131.19 = 13.01. Estimates are 8.60 + 13.00 + 47.70 = 69.30. PS-12's cost date to today is 253 days. Certification at 400 units is 6,500.00 / 400 = 16.25.
Where it fits
- Finance and accounting, where cost treatment and margin are validated before a price is approved.
- Sales, where the quote is prepared and the question "what does this configuration really cost us" arrives.
- Hardware and physical technology, where one product ships in many configurations and some parts are still unquoted when the customer asks.
- Manufacturing, where assembly time and freight belong in the price.
- Consumer brands, where bundles and variants are quoted to retail and trade buyers.
- Established businesses, where standard costs were set long ago and quietly aged.
- Growth & scaling, when quotes multiply faster than finance can review them one by one.
It prices one configuration for one quote. It is a different piece of work from Range margin by channel review, which compares margin across a range and its channels, from Discount request review, which tests a request to go below list against your policy, from Price change review, which weighs a change to published prices, and from Product landed cost worksheet, which works out the cost of goods after a shipment arrives.
What has to change for your company
Fix the column headers of your six inputs once, or map your system's names to the defaults. Decide your margin floor and the age at which a cost counts as stale. Write your allocation rules: how tooling is spread, what percentage of price stands in for support, and which cost types have no rule yet. Name who validates cost treatment, who approves the price and who confirms the configuration. Decide whether an estimate belongs in the total, since the worksheet includes estimates and flags them.
What has been checked
Fully Powered AI wrote this capability template. It was editorially reviewed on 10 November 2026. It was tried on its invented example on 10 November 2026 in Claude, by the person who revised it, not blind; the record is published with it, and covers the revised version only for the cases that example contains (an unquoted part, estimates in the total, a stale cost, an unallocated charge, a missing cost type and a volume case below the spread rule's). Rules for a header mismatch, a contradicting line, a duplicate line, a differing currency and missing files have not been run. It has not yet been tested in a client environment. It has not yet been tested as a packaged version in ChatGPT, Claude, Copilot or Gemini.
Testing in your environment means running it on a past quote your finance lead already knows, with cases written in advance: a part with no cost, a tooling charge with no rule, a forecast volume below the volume the tooling was spread over. The finance lead checks every figure against the source files before anyone relies on the sheet. Pilot acceptance-test preparation sets those cases up.
The full capability template
Everything above is the outline. The complete capability template is the working version: the roles, the inputs, the procedure, the exceptions and stop conditions, the output format, the reviewer checklist, the acceptance tests, the instructions for an AI assistant and what to customize for your company. It comes with a download and the link to its folder in Fully Powered’s public repository.
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