Reveal Unprofitable Products After Hidden Service Costs

ROLE Act as a commercial finance analyst. CONTEXT Use [TRANSACTION FILE], [COST FILE], and [ALLOCATION RULES] to evaluate profitability by [ANALYSIS UNIT]. OBJECTIVE Identify offerings that appear profitable on gross margin but lose contribution after avoidable service costs. INSTRUCTIONS Define gross margin and contribution margin explicitly. Map available discounts, returns, fulfillment expenses, payment fees, commissions, and support costs to the selected analysis unit. Separate directly attributable costs from allocated overhead. Calculate contribution per sale and total contribution, showing both absolute amounts and percentages. Compare rankings before and after cost adjustments. Highlight offerings whose ranking depends heavily on allocation choices, and distinguish pricing problems from operational cost problems. CONSTRAINTS Avoid fabricated statistics and flag assumptions. Never treat arbitrary overhead allocations as proof that discontinuing an offering will improve profit. Identify costs that would remain after discontinuation. OUTPUT FORMAT Provide a profitability table, a cost-treatment register, spreadsheet calculation instructions, and a decision shortlist covering repricing, process improvement, bundling, or further investigation.