Modular Financial Education Built for Production- and Project-Based Businesses
From a shared Foundation Module through specialized Manufacturing and Construction Tracks, the Academy provides a flexible certification pathway grounded in the financial decisions your business faces daily.
The MarginWerks Academy
MarginWerks provides professional financial education and business efficiency technology to owners, controllers, finance professionals, and other decision-makers at U.S. manufacturing and construction small and mid-sized enterprises.
We offer two integrated components: the Manufacturing & Construction Financial Excellence Academy and the proprietary Business Efficiency Platform.
Manufacturing & Construction Financial Excellence Academy
Our Academy delivers a modular, sector-specific curriculum covering financial statements, costing, cash flow, reporting automation, and industry-specialized topics across Construction and Manufacturing Tracks.
Business Efficiency Platform
Our Business Efficiency Platform translates Academy methodologies into interactive daily operational tools, including cost models, automated reporting dashboards, ROI scenario planners, working capital calculators, and AI-supported features for identifying cost anomalies, generating financial scenarios, and querying performance data.
Our Curriculum
The Academy equips owners, controllers, and finance professionals at U.S. manufacturing and construction SMEs with the financial skills they need most. The curriculum is organized across a required Foundation Module, two specialized industry tracks, and an optional Leadership & Owner Mindset capstone.
The Foundation Module is the required entry point for all Academy participants, establishing the financial literacy and reporting fundamentals that underpin every subsequent module across both the Construction and Manufacturing tracks.
01
Know Your Numbers
Participants learn to interpret a P&L and balance sheet, determine which costing model applies to their business, and recognize where overhead and labor costs are most frequently misallocated.
02
Cash Isn't Profit
This module explains why profitable months can still produce cash shortfalls, introduces the cash conversion cycle, and walks participants through building a rolling 13-week cash forecast using a provided template.
03
Track What Matters
Participants identify the handful of financial metrics that warrant weekly attention, receive an introduction to automated reporting tools, and complete a self-assessment of their current financial blind spots.
The Construction Track provides specialized financial instruction for owners, controllers, and finance professionals in construction businesses, covering the full range of financial decisions encountered across bidding, equipment management, cash collection, bonding and financing, and business growth.
01
Bidding & Change
Orders
From building competitive bids that account for labor, materials, and risk contingency to managing scope shifts through airtight change order documentation and contract language that protects margin, this module covers the full bid-to-close financial cycle.
02
Equipment & Fleet Financial Management
This module walks through the buy-lease-rent decision framework, total cost of ownership modeling, utilization and idle-time costing, maintenance ROI, and replacement timing, closing with a hands-on fleet financial dashboard build.
03
Cash Collection & Legal Remedies
Participants learn to build a proactive collections process, manage the cash impact of retainage, and, with input from qualified guest experts, understand mechanics liens, filing requirements, and the practical decision framework for escalating unpaid receivables.
04
Bonding & Financing Readiness
This module covers how bonding capacity is calculated and what sureties read in your financials, with guest experts addressing bond premium reduction, collateral requirements, and SBA loan readiness for contractors.
05
Growth &
Positioning
From evaluating financial readiness for CHIPS Act and infrastructure contracts to managing supply chain risk and building the internal controls needed to scale without breaking, this module prepares contractors for the next stage of growth and eventual exit or succession.
The Manufacturing Track gives owners, controllers, and finance professionals at manufacturing SMEs the sector-specific costing, forecasting, and financial management skills needed to protect margin across production, service, and capital decisions.
01
Quoting & Engineering Change Orders
This module covers how to build profitable quotes for custom jobs and batch runs, including overhead allocation, setup costs, and contingency, as well as how to control cost impact when specs change through disciplined ECO documentation and pricing.
02
Field Service & Aftermarket Accounting
From understanding why machine-centric costing breaks down for service operations to pricing time-and-materials versus service contracts and building a service technician utilization dashboard, this module addresses the full financial lifecycle of aftermarket revenue.
03
Capacity, Inventory & Stock Valuation
Participants work through the financial cost of idle capacity, the case for contra-cyclical and make-to-stock production, stock valuation methods and ongoing revaluation, and how to handle slow-moving inventory.
04
Pipeline-to-Cash Forecasting
This module connects sales backlog and pipeline data to a working cash flow forecast, tracing how production scheduling, make-to-order versus make-to-stock decisions, and long-lead-time materials planning each affect working capital, with a hands-on integrated model build.
05
Receivables & Financing Readiness
From structuring credit terms and UCC filings to protect B2B receivables to managing repeat-customer credit risk and preparing for SBA equipment financing, this module ties receivables management directly to capital readiness.
The Leadership & Owner Mindset capstone is an optional three-day add-on available to participants from either track, designed for business owners ready to work on the personal and operational habits that determine whether financial skills actually drive results.
01
From Operator to
Owner
Participants examine the mindset shift required to move from doing the work to running the business, and build the goal-setting discipline needed to turn financial insight into executed plans.
02
Delegation & Decision-Making Under Pressure
This session addresses the practical challenges of letting go of operational control and making sound decisions when stakes are high and information is incomplete.
03
Avoiding Burnout & Your 90-Day Plan
The capstone closes with a candid look at owner burnout and a facilitated workshop where each participant leaves with a concrete 90-day goal plan.
The MarginWerks Business Efficiency Platform
The MarginWerks Business Efficiency Platform is a proprietary SaaS platform designed for owners, controllers, and finance professionals at U.S. manufacturing and construction SMEs.
It provides interactive cost models, automated reporting dashboards, return-on-investment scenario planners, working capital optimization calculators, and multi-tier supply chain financial monitoring modules, translating financial and operational data into structured tools that support cost control, investment analysis, reporting, and financial decision-making.
Our platform complements the Academy by offering a digital environment in which users can apply the financial management methodologies covered in the curriculum.
"After years of experience in advising construction and manufacturing SMEs across the U.S., I saw the same gap repeatedly: owners and financial professionals making critical decisions without a structured framework built for their businesses."
Hans Jakob Kirschner - Founder & CEO
Get In Touch
We welcome inquiries from owners, controllers, and finance professionals at U.S. manufacturing and construction SMEs.
Reach out by leaving us your details here, or through our contact page to get started.
Member Access: Reserved for enrolled Academy participants and active platform subscribers.