Manufacturing
Complex supply chains, cost pressures, and regulatory requirements continue to challenge today’s manufacturers.
Ascend helps clients achieve financial clarity and operational efficiency to stay competitive in fast-evolving markets.
How we help
We partner with manufacturers to streamline cost accounting, improve product margin visibility, and support accurate forecasting - even in environments with thousands of SKUs or government oversight. From implementing scalable reporting structures to providing fractional CFO support, Ascend enables clients to reduce waste, improve inventory accuracy, and align financial systems with production realities.
Our clients consistently gain sharper insight into true costs, faster monthly closes, and stronger decision-making capability across teams.
“Ascend didn’t just audit our costing, they understood the complexity of our business right away… uncovered nearly $600K in misallocated costs...”
Case Study: Manufacturing Client
The Challenge:
A regional aerospace components manufacturer struggled with product costing across more than 6,000 SKUs. Legacy ERP limitations and inconsistent data entry across departments led to cost distortions, margin compression, and repeated delays in monthly close. The finance team lacked the capacity to trace cost discrepancies or realign the costing model without affecting day-to-day operations.
The Solution:
Ascend deployed a fractional team including a senior controller and cost accounting analyst. Over eight weeks, they rebuilt the company’s standard costing model, restructured the bill-of-material workflows, and integrated revised logic into the ERP. Monthly close time was reduced by 30%, inventory valuation accuracy improved by 18%, and the firm gained actionable margin data to inform pricing and vendor strategy.
“Ascend didn’t just audit our costing… they understood the complexity of our business right away. We have over 8,000 SKUs, government oversight, and no room for error. They mapped our process top to bottom, uncovered nearly $600K in misallocated costs, and improved the accuracy of our inventory reporting by over 35%. No ego, no jargon. Just clarity.”
