Tariff margin loss seen today, not at quarter-end.
A building-products manufacturer buys metal at prices that tariffs keep pushing up. We built a treasury view that tracks input costs the way the business prices metal, and shows which contracts lose money and which entity’s cash covers it.
Clients are not named, and identifying details are withheld or changed to protect their confidentiality. Each case illustrates the work rather than giving an exact account of it.
What the old way cost them.
As metal tariffs climbed, fixed-price contracts could not reprice. Their margin fell to about 2%, against about 21% on indexed contracts, and finance saw it only when the quarter closed.
- ~2% margin on fixed-price contracts
- Margin loss seen at quarter-end
- Tariff cost hidden in the metal price
- Tariff premium tracked on its own
- Losing contracts named today
- Cash cover by entity
What the system does, outcome by outcome.
- Metal input cost is tracked as the exchange price and the tariff premium, each on its own.
- Every customer contract shows its exposure, fixed-price or indexed.
- Currency exposure follows a governed rate policy.
- A rolling cash forecast sits beside receivables and payables aging.
- Physical and system inventory are reconciled, with a weekly narrative.
- Every figure shows the system or file it came from.
Where AI works, where people decide.
Rules
The rate policy, transfer-price checks and inventory matching are fixed rules.
Predictions
The rolling cash forecast is the predictive part. The exposure figures come straight from the books.
Generation
Agents explain each treasury signal and write the weekly briefing. The CFO asks questions of live data in plain language.
People decide
The CFO and treasury decide what to do about each contract and where cash moves.
How it’s governed. Every step on record.
Celara is the governance layer. The company’s strategic objectives, such as neutralizing tariff cost, are computed live from the platform’s events. Each one traces to the rule, the decision and the person behind it.
- Tariff-cost neutrality is tracked as an objective, from live signals.
- Each objective opens to its rule, its decision and its owner.
- Every figure keeps the source it came from.
What the system does every day.
- The CFO sees today which contracts lose money.
- The tariff premium is tracked on its own.
- Each entity’s cash cover sits beside the exposure.
- Every figure shows its source.
Bring one process you want to fix.
We’ll show you agents running it on your rules, with people deciding where it matters.