Your production data
knows where the margin went.
We find it.

Three clicks from your ERP. We need your batch production records and purchase data for the last 30–60 days — exported as CSV or Excel from Sage 50, Sage 200, Access, or equivalent. If your system can't export in a structured format, we provide a simple four-tab intake template. We specify exactly what we need in advance. The average client spends 30 minutes gathering and sending data.

No. The Talos data pipeline is built for real-world manufacturing data — messy column headers, inconsistent units, merged cells, multiple file sources. We've processed exports from Sage 50 spreadsheets, manually maintained Excel job books, and Access databases. If your data is genuinely too fragmented to work with, we'll tell you before we charge you anything.

You send your data via a ProtonDrive secure link — end-to-end encrypted. We process it entirely off-site on our own infrastructure. No third-party cloud processing. No data residency on client premises. For audit-only engagements, your data is deleted from our systems within 30 days of engagement close. If you take the monthly monitoring service, your audit baseline is retained for the duration of the active monitoring relationship (up to 12 months), so we can compare each month against it. The engagement agreement you sign before we start includes explicit data handling provisions.

We commit to two things in writing. First: every finding we surface is quantified in £ and arithmetically traceable from your own production data — your accountant can verify every figure independently using the same source file. Second: if the audit cannot identify at least £2,500 in addressable variance findings — the equivalent of the engagement cost — we refund the fee in full. Results depend on your batch volume, your data history, and what your production records contain, which is why the Margin Clarity call comes first. If we don't believe the data will produce meaningful findings, we tell you before you commit a penny.

The report length scales with your dataset — a client with 60 days of data across 80 batches will receive a longer report than one with 30 days across 20 batches. Every report contains: a cover page with a data integrity hash so you can verify the file we analysed matches what you sent; an executive summary with total margin exposure in £; a full batch variance table covering every batch in the audit window; the top 3 loss drivers ranked by £ impact with the specific calculation behind each; and specific, costed recommendations — not general improvement advice. Delivered in a 45-minute video call. You can act on the findings the same week.

Your ERP records transactions. Talos calculates what those transactions cost you relative to what you planned. Most SME systems — Sage 50/200, Access, Excel — weren't built to run batch variance analysis against recipe standards. They store the data; they don't surface the gap. We work with your existing ERP exports as a data source. No replacement, no migration, no IT project.

Talos combines proprietary automated data intelligence with fully transparent, CIMA-standard variance calculations. The data preparation methodology — how your export is read, matched, and structured for analysis — is proprietary and not disclosed. What is fully disclosed: every calculation. We use CIMA standard cost variance formulas — the same methodology any management accountant would recognise. Price variance: (actual price − standard price) × actual quantity. Usage variance: (actual quantity used − standard quantity) × standard price. Yield variance: (actual output − planned output) × standard cost per unit. All calculations are shown in the report and are fully traceable back to your source data.

No. The audit applies to any batch or process manufacturer where production is planned against a recipe or bill of materials and margin is lost in the gap between planned and actual. Beyond food and drink, this includes breweries and distilleries, cosmetics and personal care, nutraceuticals and supplements, specialty and fine chemicals, paints and coatings, pet food and animal feed, flavours and fragrances, and contract or private-label manufacturers across any of those sectors. If your operation runs a recipe, plans a batch, and exports production data from an ERP or similar system, the methodology applies. Food & beverage is our launch vertical because it has the highest batch complexity — but the variance engine is not sector-specific. Book a discovery call and we'll tell you directly whether it's a fit.

We send the report PDF and invoice the balance within 24 hours of the delivery call. Within 48 hours of payment, you'll receive a one-page monthly monitoring proposal — typically £500–800/month depending on volume. The monitoring service runs the same analysis monthly on your latest ERP export, generates a 3-page delta report, and flags anything that's moved materially from your audit baseline. There's no obligation to continue. Most clients do.

The sweet spot is manufacturers running at least 20 batches per month with 12+ months of ERP or production history. Below that, the variance signal is harder to isolate from noise. If you're running fewer batches, book a call anyway — sometimes the data density is higher than the batch count suggests, and we'd rather tell you it's a fit than turn you away based on a number alone.