MarginRoot

A David R. McGill Advisory product

Find where pricing is quietly eroding gross margin

MarginRoot analyzes 12–24 months of distributor transaction data to identify pricing inconsistencies, incomplete cost pass-through, legacy discounts, and other sources of margin leakage.$7,500 fixed fee · 10 business days · No software implementation

No confidential transaction data is required for the initial check

View a sample MarginRoot Review →

Your transaction history already contains the evidence

Margin leakage rarely appears as one obvious mistake. In a distributor with thousands of customers, products, branches, and pricing decisions, it usually builds gradually through small inconsistencies that are difficult to see in ordinary reporting.Cost increases not fully passed through
Supplier costs move, but realized customer pricing does not move enough or quickly enough.Pricing inconsistency
Comparable customers, branches, or sales portfolios realize materially different economics.Legacy pricing and discounts
Old pricing relationships remain in place even after cost, volume, or commercial conditions change.Price increases not fully adopted
A planned pricing move reaches some customers but is missed, delayed, or overridden for others.

MarginRoot reduces thousands of individual transactions to a small number of economically important management decisions.

See what MarginRoot delivers

MarginRoot turns transaction-level analysis into a quantified, prioritized management review. The objective is not to produce a long list of anomalies, but to show where the economics are concentrated, what supports each finding, and what management should review first.

Illustrative MarginRoot output using synthetic distributor data. Not a client result.

A MarginRoot review shows:
- Initial quantified opportunity and management-validated actionable opportunity
- Where the largest economics are concentrated
- The highest-priority findings and affected areas
- Evidence supporting each material finding
- The specific management actions to review first
- Controls that can help prevent recurrenceEvery material finding is traceable to the underlying transaction evidence. Review signals are not counted as actionable opportunity until management context supports them.

View the full 4-page sample MarginRoot Review →

How MarginRoot works

A MarginRoot review is a fixed-scope analytical process. There is no software implementation, system integration, or ongoing consulting engagement.1. Send your transaction data
Provide 12–24 months of sales transaction history through a secure upload process. A standard ERP sales-history export is usually sufficient.2. MarginRoot analyzes the economics
The production engine tests for incomplete cost pass-through, pricing inconsistency, realization erosion, legacy pricing, price-increase non-adoption, and related margin patterns across customers, products, branches, and time periods.3. Management validates the highest-value findings
You receive a short validation file covering the findings that require commercial context. Your team identifies legitimate contracts, strategic exceptions, local-market differences, or other factors the transaction data cannot explain on its own.4. Receive the final action file
MarginRoot converts the validated analysis into a prioritized management package showing the opportunities that remain actionable, the evidence behind them, the specific relationships to review, and controls that can help prevent recurrence.Target turnaround: 10 business days from validated data receipt.Most of the analytical work happens on our side. Your team's primary involvement is providing the data and completing the focused management-validation step.

What you receive

MarginRoot delivers a complete management package, not just an analytical report. The final output is designed so Finance, Sales, and branch leadership can move directly from finding to action.Executive Margin Summary
A concise view of the validated opportunity, where the economics are concentrated, and the highest-priority management actions.Validated Findings Register
A complete record of each material finding, including economic impact, affected sales, confidence, evidence basis, management validation, and recommended action.Finding Evidence Packs
Detailed support for the largest opportunities, with the customer, product, branch, and transaction relationships behind each finding.Pricing Action File
A prioritized work queue showing the specific relationships management should review first, with relationship-level economics where the evidence supports them.Control & Prevention Register
Practical monitoring controls tied to the root causes identified in the review, helping management detect recurrence earlier.Client Evidence Workbook
A filterable Excel workbook containing the executive summary, findings, supporting evidence, validation bridge, action files, data-quality coverage, and methodology.

Also included: one 45-minute findings walkthrough
We review the final results, explain the largest opportunities, and answer questions about the delivered analysis.$7,500 fixed fee. No percentage of savings. No subscription. No ongoing consulting commitment.

Is MarginRoot a fit for your business?

MarginRoot is designed primarily for wholesale distributors with meaningful customer, product, and branch complexity, where pricing decisions are spread across enough transactions that margin leakage can be difficult to isolate through normal reporting.MarginRoot is likely to be a good fit if your business has:
- Approximately $20M-$100M+ in annual revenue
- Multiple branches, locations, or sales territories
- Thousands of customer/product pricing relationships
- Frequent supplier cost changes
- Customer-specific pricing, discounts, or negotiated exceptions
- Transaction-level sales and cost history available
- Management concern about margin pressure, pricing consistency, or incomplete price realizationTypical industries
HVAC, plumbing, electrical, industrial/MRO, building products, and other technical wholesale distribution businesses.

What data do we need?
A standard sales-history export is usually enough to determine whether the review can run effectively.Core fields typically include:
- Transaction date
- Customer ID
- SKU / product ID
- Quantity
- Net sales or realized selling price
- Unit cost / COGS
- Branch or locationOptional fields such as product category, sales rep, supplier, customer segment, list price, discount percentage, contract flags, and override indicators can deepen the analysis.You do not need to provide confidential transaction data to determine whether MarginRoot is a fit.For the initial Data Fit Check, you can simply provide your ERP/accounting system, approximate revenue, number of branches, months of history available, and the column headers from a normal sales-history export.

No transaction values are required for the initial check

Data Security

MarginRoot is designed to minimize unnecessary exposure of client data.Raw transaction data stays within the controlled analytical workflow.
Client files are received through a secure upload process and used for the transaction-level analysis.Customer names are not required when stable IDs are available.
Where possible, MarginRoot works from internal customer, product, branch, and sales-rep identifiers rather than personally identifying information.Raw ERP exports are not submitted to generative AI.
Where AI-assisted analytical review is used, it operates only on pseudonymized or aggregated analytical outputs. Any AI-generated hypothesis must be verified against the underlying deterministic analysis before it becomes a client finding.Only the data needed for the review is requested.
MarginRoot does not require bank-account information, payment-card data, Social Security numbers, employee personal information, passwords, or ERP login credentials.Working files are retained only as needed for the engagement and closeout.
Unless otherwise agreed, active client working files are scheduled for deletion within 30 days after final delivery.

The initial Data Fit Check does not require confidential transaction data.

Fixed scope. Fixed fee.

MarginRoot Review - $7,500

A standard MarginRoot engagement includes 12–24 months of transaction analysis, the full v1.0 analytical review, one management-validation cycle, the final client deliverable package, and one 45-minute findings walkthrough.Included:
- Transaction-level margin analysis
- Cost pass-through, pricing realization, peer, branch, legacy-pricing, and related tests
- Opportunity quantification and de-duplication
- Management-validation cycle
- Executive Margin Summary
- Validated Findings Register
- Finding Evidence Packs
- Pricing Action File
- Control & Prevention Register
- Client Evidence Workbook
- 45-minute findings walkthroughTarget turnaround: 10 business days from validated data receipt.What is not included
MarginRoot is a fixed-scope analytical product. It does not include ongoing consulting, pricing-software implementation, customer repricing, sales-team implementation, contract/legal review, external market benchmarking, or recovery/collection work unless separately agreed.No subscription. No percentage of savings. No contingency fee.If your data is unusually fragmented, spans multiple unrelated ERP systems, or falls materially outside the standard review scope, we will identify that during the Data Fit Check before work begins.

No transaction values are required for the initial check

Built by David R. McGill Advisory

MarginRoot is a product of David R. McGill Advisory, an independent practice focused on strategy, finance, performance, and decision support.MarginRoot was built around a straightforward idea: companies often already have the data needed to answer important economic questions, but extracting a useful management answer from that data can require substantial analytical work.MarginRoot combines deterministic transaction analysis, financial judgment, and structured management validation to turn that underlying data into a small number of quantified, evidence-supported decisions.The objective is not another dashboard or software implementation. It is a clear answer your management team can use.

Frequently asked questions

What type of company is MarginRoot designed for?
MarginRoot is designed primarily for wholesale distributors with meaningful customer, product, and branch complexity. It is especially relevant where pricing varies by customer, branch, product, contract, or sales relationship.What data do you need?
Typically 12-24 months of transaction-level sales history, including transaction date, customer ID, product/SKU, quantity, net sales or realized price, cost/COGS, and branch or location. Additional fields can deepen the analysis but are not always required.Do I need to provide confidential data before deciding to proceed?
No. The initial Data Fit Check can usually be completed using basic information about your business, ERP system, available history, and the column headers in a standard sales export. No transaction values are required.How long does the review take?
The target turnaround is 10 business days from validated data receipt. The clock begins once the required files have been received, mapped, and confirmed as sufficiently complete for the standard analysis.How much time does my team need to spend on the review?
Most of the analytical work happens on our side. Your team primarily provides the data and completes one focused management-validation step so legitimate commercial exceptions can be separated from actionable opportunities.Does MarginRoot tell us exactly what prices to charge?
No. MarginRoot identifies and quantifies pricing and margin relationships that warrant management attention. The final pricing decisions remain with your team, which may have customer, competitive, contractual, or strategic context that transaction data alone cannot capture.Is MarginRoot software or an ongoing subscription?
No. MarginRoot is a fixed-scope analytical review. There is no software implementation, ongoing subscription, or requirement to adopt another system.What happens if the analysis does not uncover a large opportunity?
MarginRoot reports what the evidence supports. The review is designed to identify and quantify material opportunities where they exist, not to manufacture a predetermined savings number. A clean result can itself provide management with greater confidence in current pricing and margin controls.

Check your data fitNo confidential transaction data is required. Tell me a little about your business and the data you have available, and I’ll confirm whether MarginRoot appears to be a fit.Helpful details: your ERP or accounting system, approximate annual revenue, number of branches or locations, and how many months of transaction history you have available.

Please do not submit transaction data, customer information, or other confidential records through this form

MarginRoot is a product of David R. McGill Advisory