Cost and efficiency

We serve the whole company, not only the finance department.

This page is not organised around our product catalogue. It is organised around the way a manufacturer's own money moves: seven business stages, from R&D through to the tax and audit close. Each stage answers three questions only — where the saving is, which product modules do the work, and which metric verifies it. All sixteen modules have a place on that chain: engineering, procurement, production, sales, marketing, export, tax. We can pick up at any of them.

Two kinds of arithmetic

Cost saving comes in two kinds. Do not mix them

One kind reconciles back to source documents. The other can only be compared before and after, against a business metric. We keep them apart, because a blended “thirty per cent saving” carries no weight with a board, a bank or a tax authority — and because the two are accepted in different ways.

Money you can compute: traceable to source documents

The super-deduction claimed, and the supporting file behind it
Export VAT refunds received, and the reconciliation ledger
Additional tax avoided in a controversy engagement
Loss-making orders priced below cost, and their share of revenue
Unit price gaps on same-spec, same-period purchases
Energy per unit and per tonne; gross margin by cost object once overhead allocation is recomputed
Capital tied up in slow-moving stock, and dead inventory

Hours you save: comparable only against a business metric

Hours spent collating purchase-order follow-ups, and how long open items sit
Effort spent assembling papers, marking them and organising training
Effort and revision rounds spent recording and producing video
Search and collation time in technical solution research
Delivery time, defect count and rework hours for a comparable scope of work
Time from a new hire's first day to working unsupervised

The second kind carries one hard rule: fix the scope, the effort and the acceptance criteria before the trial starts, then compare before and after. A comparison with no agreed basis convinces nobody.

Three numbers from the project archive

The following are anonymised results from real engagements, shown to illustrate what the first kind looks like. They depend on the facts, evidence and policy environment at the time and are not a promise about any other engagement.

51%

Drop in electricity cost per unit

Electroplating and surface treatment · Jiangsu. Twelve months of daily measurement: output up 4.6×, electricity per unit down 51%, and more than half of all cost did not move with volume.

RMB 10.25m

Seven years of losses, fully attributed

Advanced materials · Jiangsu. A forward-deployed internal audit traced the entire loss to a 1.98-point gross margin gap, itself determined by related-party purchase pricing that accounted for 97.02% of procurement.

RMB 5.4m

Additional tax avoided in a dispute

Manufacturing · East China. The inspection bureau sought RMB 6.3m at 35%. Through supplementary evidence and negotiation, RMB 5.4m of that was avoided.

We do not forecast percentages. The three numbers above already happened; they are not a quotation or a promise for the next engagement. What your company can recover is measured after the scenario diagnostic, on your own data.

Seven business stages

Where the saving is, stage by stage down the process

From project approval through to the tax and audit close, a manufacturer's money moves through roughly these seven stages. For each one we answer three questions only: where the saving is, which product modules do the work, and how you verify it. All sixteen modules have a place on this chain — that is what “serving the whole company” looks like in practice.

01R&D and project approvalM07 · M09 · M14
Where the saving isR&D spend that cannot be claimed as a super-deduction; approval paperwork assembled in a rush before the annual filing; technology selection that costs an engineer a day of searching; requirement changes with no record, producing rework. Four problems in four departments, and nobody looking at them together.
Which modules do itM07 R&D expenditure and super-deductionTakes the ledger exported from Yonyou, Kingdee and the like and, on the client's own machine, assembles the 2021-format auxiliary ledger and the values for form A107012, computes each cap separately, then runs the 24-point risk check and the supporting-file checklist. Qualifying the R&D activity and filing the evidence stays with people.M09 AI development workflow and implementation serviceConnects requirements, design, build, test and release into a traceable process, so requirements have a basis, changes have a record and delivery has an independent acceptance step.M14 AI technical solution researcherTurns selection from a day of searching into a candidate list with cited sources, which the person deciding checks before committing.
How you verify itSuper-deduction claimed and completeness of the supporting file; how many of the 24 risk points are cleared; delivery time, defect count and rework hours for a comparable scope of work.
02Procurement and supplyM02 · M05 · M15
Where the saving isThe same specification bought at different prices, with nobody able to say why; related-party purchase pricing with no evidence behind it; order follow-up that means copying progress and correspondence by hand; supplier concentration and payment terms that nobody watches.
Which modules do itM02 Related-party transactions and pricing fairnessCompares unit prices for the same specification in the same period line by line, measures the buy-sell spread against processing cost coverage and identifies two-way round-tripping, turning a structural judgement into a specific negotiable amount.M05 Management dashboard and cash flowProduces purchase price trends, supplier concentration, counterparties that both buy and sell, and three-way related-party binding.M15 AI procurement assistantBrings the standardisable part of order follow-up into an agreed workflow, while anything requiring judgement or exception handling goes back to a person.
How you verify itThe price gap on same-spec, same-period purchases; related-party purchase share and concentration; hours spent collating follow-ups and how long open items sit.
03Production and costM08 · M05 · M10 · M11
Where the saving isManufacturing overhead is a black box: one total, spread across products by volume or labour hours. Unit cost does not reconcile to a process step or a machine, downtime and scrap never become money, and the asset register does not match the three documents. This is the largest single block in a factory, and the module where Yidao is most differentiated.
Which modules do itM08 Manufacturing cost and equipment assetsEstablishes cost objects, restores material, labour and overhead, recomputes the overhead allocation, links energy per unit and per tonne, puts a number on downtime structure and lost capacity, computes first-pass yield and scrap cost, builds equipment asset cards with three-way matching, and ends with a costed list of reduction opportunities.M05 Management dashboard and cash flowProduces profit and loss down to the individual ledger entry and ranks capital tied up in slow-moving stock, surfacing orders priced below cost.M10 Enterprise knowledge baseCaptures machine operation, process SOPs and step definitions as content with a source, a version and an owner.M11 AI teaching video generationTurns that material into reusable training video, so a new hire no longer shadows someone for three months.
How you verify itEnergy per unit and per tonne; gross margin by cost object; the money value of downtime and lost capacity; gaps in the equipment card register; pass rates on machine certification and time to unsupervised work.
04Sales and collectionM05 · M10 · M12 · M13 · Sales Academy
Where the saving isSelling and selling profitably are two different things, and most factories can see neither. On one side new hires take too long, the pitch is not consistent and a veteran's experience walks out with them. On the other, loss-making orders are invisible, nobody stops an account that has blown through its credit limit, and customer concentration goes unwatched.
Which modules do itM05 Management dashboard and cash flowRanks profit and loss by product and by customer, surfaces orders priced below cost and their share, flags ageing receivables against credit limits and produces a three-month rolling cash forecast.M12 AI sales call coachPuts a trainee in a live voice conversation with an AI customer, and afterwards produces the model's raw score, the reviewed score and a full transcript.M13 AI online assessmentConnects the question bank, paper assembly, marking and weak-point analysis, with results feeding straight into the next round of training.M10 Enterprise knowledge baseGives coaching scenarios and assessment questions a sourced, versioned content base, so changing the message changes all of them at once.
How you verify itThe value and share of loss-making orders; accounts over their credit limit and days past due; customer concentration; time to a new hire's first order, training pass rates and assessment pass rates.
05Marketing and contentM16 · M11 · M12
Where the saving isMaterial remade from scratch every time, agencies charging per clip, a course that vanishes once it has been taught. More commonly, the content marketing produces never becomes what sales actually says — two ends working separately with nothing in between.
Which modules do itM16 AI short video generationOrganises sustainable content production around a material library and a set of themes, so one batch of footage becomes both a product introduction and a how-to.M11 AI teaching video generationTurns existing decks into reusable training video, giving product training and policy briefings one consistent form.M12 AI sales call coachWhere this chain comes out: the product language and pitch that marketing settles on become, through coaching scenarios and knowledge packs, what a salesperson can actually say on the phone — and M13 online assessment checks it.
How you verify itProduction effort and revision rounds per clip and per minute; how often a course is reused; training and assessment pass rates on one agreed pitch.
06Export and cross-borderM06 · M10
Where the saving isSince 2025 a series of announcements has built a look-through supervision regime and squeezed the grey space around borrowed-name exports. Incomplete documentation means no refund, HS classification runs on experience, and filing and reconciliation sit with two or three individuals — when they leave, it stops.
Which modules do itM06 Cross-border e-commerce compliance and VAT refundsConnects to the local cross-border e-commerce public service platforms for one-click filing under 9610 / 9710 / 9810 / 1210, classifies HS codes using a large model together with product attributes, links customs declarations, input invoices, output invoices and orders into a traceable refund reconciliation ledger, and turns the errors that surface in document review into automatic checks that run before filing. The compliance path, the refund evidence chain and the tax treatment of offshore receipts are handled by the forward-deployed team.M10 Enterprise knowledge baseKeeps the filing rules and the procedures in one place, so it does not stop when someone leaves.
How you verify itTime to refund and amount received; how many filings the pre-submission check stops; completion of the 61-point cross-border tax compliance self-check.
07Tax, finance and auditM01 · M03 · M04 · Controversy
Where the saving isRisk that can only be sensed from experience: books that do not match reality, cross-year smoothing, money whose destination nobody can explain, inter-company balances parked for years. By the time an inspection arrives, the evidence is not in hand — and from that point the options narrow sharply.
Which modules do itM04 Tax risk scan and remediationRuns 264 risk models against 36 months of filings and invoice data to produce a quantified, industry-specific risk report and a three-tier risk list, with invoices analysed across ten dimensions. Runs on Anxinshui.M01 Internal audit and control frameworkMakes working papers code: reconciliation relationships are assertions and a break fails the build, while verified data is frozen as a golden-regression baseline so that changing a definition fails the regression first. Runs on Neishentong + CFAudit.M03 Transaction substance and use of fundsTraces concentrated borrowings, bank account completeness, balances with shareholders and related individuals, and cross-year reversals, with a forward-deployed team on site for verification and remediation tracking.
How you verify itThe number of items on the three-tier risk list and how many clear on re-scan; assertion pass rate across the working papers; movement in the estimated tax exposure; whether key indicators turn positive once remediation items close.

One thing stated plainly: M09–M16 sit directly on the process at stages 01 R&D, 02 procurement, 04 sales training and 05 marketing content. At 03 production and cost, 06 export and 07 tax and audit, the money is computed by M01–M08 — getting process-step cost right takes cost objects, restored material-labour-overhead and energy data, not a model. We are not vague about that line. If a dispute arises, the tax controversy practice takes it directly; it is not a module and is scoped case by case.

One layer that runs through all seven: organisation and knowledge

Every stage above hides the same cost: the critical steps are known to a few long-serving people, it stops when they leave, and a new hire shadows someone for three months. This layer does not recover money at any one stage. It answers whether the work still gets done when the people change.

M10 Enterprise knowledge base: organise material by product, role or business theme, align terminology and wording, and make source, version and owner explicit so that stale content has a defined way out
M11 AI teaching video generation: turn existing decks into reusable training video, so machine operation, process SOPs and policy briefings need not be delivered live every year
M13 AI online assessment: question bank, paper assembly, online sitting, AI-assisted marking and weak-point analysis on one line, with results feeding straight into the next round of remedial training
Sales Enablement and Assessment System: six modules of content, question bank, case library and certification mechanism, delivered forward-deployed and walked into production with the client

These four read as duplicates but are not: they are content and container. The Sales Enablement system is the content pack and certification mechanism for a commercial role; M10, M11 and M13 are the general platform that carries it — and carries content for other roles too. Paired, the enablement system gains live voice coaching and automated marking, and the AI platform gains a content pack that already exists.

Combinations

Six combinations that decide which modules come first

A module works on its own, but only when several are combined around one business objective do knowledge, training and daily work actually join up. The fourth column is the first step we recommend — start small rather than rolling out everything at once.

Business objective	Who uses it	Which modules	Where to start
Training and role certification	Training / HR / business units	Knowledge base + AI teaching video + AI online assessment	Take stock of the existing material for one role, and agree the wording and the content owner
Raising sales capability	Head of sales	Knowledge base + AI sales call coach + AI online assessment	Pick the customer scenarios for one product line and build the knowledge pack and the pass mark
Putting an AI development workflow in place	Head of IT or engineering	AI development workflow and implementation service	Take one real requirement from clarification through to independent acceptance
Technical solution research	Engineering / product / pre-sales	AI technical solution researcher + knowledge base	Run one open problem through a full cycle and check every cited source
Automating purchase-order follow-up	Head of procurement	AI procurement assistant	Map one follow-up workflow and mark which actions must stay with a person
Marketing content production	Head of marketing	AI short video generation + AI teaching video generation	Fix one material library and two themes, produce a batch and review it

These six combinations cover the eight AI modules only. The work of getting the money right sits in the seven stages above — the finance and tax tools and M01–M08 are scoped and delivered as engagements and priced by person-day, not selected as modules, and we do not blend the two.

How to start

Three ways in, four steps through

Agree the scope and the conditions first, then the schedule; start on a narrow footprint and widen from there. Software, usage and implementation are priced and stated separately, never bundled into one figure.

For: proving out a single, clearly defined scenario

Start with one module

Choose one product module, confirm the number of users or the task volume, and set out training, service period and support. Module service plus an agreed usage allowance, priced to scope.

For: working towards one business objective

Combine around a scenario

Combine the modules you need without being required to buy a whole product line; implement against your account structure, your material and your existing systems, with module fees, integration work and acceptance criteria all stated.

For: specific deployment or process requirements

Bespoke implementation

Assess whether a private or managed deployment applies, define the integration with existing systems and the scope of data processing, and agree maintenance, training and optional hands-on support. Implementation fee plus ongoing service.

STEP 1

Scenario diagnostic

Confirm the business objective, the people and the state of the material, and decide whether the work is worth doing and which stage to enter at.

Deliverable: Scenario list and evaluation metrics

STEP 2

Scope and plan

Confirm modules, deployment, interfaces, fees and where responsibility sits, and write the boundaries into the plan.

Deliverable: Deliverables list and implementation plan

STEP 3

Trial and verification

Use it for real in the agreed scenario, check output quality and workflow, and compare before and after on the basis fixed in section 01.

Deliverable: Trial record and acceptance result

STEP 4

Rollout and maintenance

Train the people who will use it, arrange content maintenance and ongoing support, then extend from one scenario to the adjacent stage.

Deliverable: User documentation and service arrangement

Forward-deployed engagements are priced by person-day and by role, with travel billed as incurred; the AI modules are priced by usage scale and implementation scope. The two bases differ and are never blended — they appear as separate lines on the quotation.

Boundaries

Three boundaries, stated up front

Results are measured against business metrics

Fix the trial scope, the effort and the acceptance criteria first, then compare the change. Each company is assessed on its own results; we do not offer another client's numbers as a promise, and we do not forecast percentages.

Judgement calls stay with people

Content review, score moderation, solution selection and anything that goes outside the company get an explicit confirmation step in the workflow. On the finance and tax side the rule is harder still: without L3 or L4 evidence, a conclusion may not move from “directional” to “confirmed”.

The scope of data processing is written down

Storage location, model calls and third-party services are distinguished, and the data flow is described for the deployment you choose. Of the six finance and tax tools, only Anxinshui retrieves data once the company authorises it; the rest run locally and no data leaves the premises. For the AI modules, what may leave the building is confirmed item by item in the implementation plan.

Tell us which stage the problem sits in before we discuss which tools to use. The first conversation needs no sensitive material from you.

Describe the problem to us

Have a specific problem and want a professional view on it?

Tell us the facts and we will tell you what kind of problem it is, how it is normally handled, and how far it can realistically be pushed on the evidence you have.