Understanding the situation
In business for over 70 years, Northern Cargo handles over 50 million pounds of freight annually for more than 250 clients. With so many clients, tracking financial data to understand the profit margin per carrier and shipment is incredibly challenging. Northern Cargo’s multiple data collection systems required manual input — and generating margin reports sometimes took a full month.
Exploring the challenge
CLA has successfully worked with Northern Cargo on tax strategy for years, but the company remained challenged by its reporting and tracking. Hearing the company’s concerns, CLA’s tax team called in the firm’s digital team to meet with Northern Cargo.
CLA’s digital team worked with Northern Cargo to learn about its report-building process and determine the appropriate calculations for:
- Overall margins
- Margins by carrier
- Margins by separate orders within shipments
Achieving results
CLA connected Northern Cargo’s multiple data collection systems, creating daily, automated margin reports. Northern Cargo can now review key performance indicators every day and compare them with historical trends, enabling them to make faster and better-informed business decisions.