Winning Tactics for Navigating Tariffs, Supply Disruptions, and Rising Costs
How to keep margins alive when tariffs, supply-chain chaos, and 30 % price hikes are coming for your lunch
“In God we trust; all others bring actionable data.” – Dan DeLong, School of Bookkeeping
Here’s a summary of the latest Method × Katana webinar, covering practical ways to manage tariffs, supply-chain risk, and rising costs.
Your panel:
- Richard Ainscough – Technolgoy Partner Manager @ Katana
- Dan DeLong – Founder of Danwidth, LLC, Chief Content Creator @ School of Bookkeeping, Host of QuickBooks Power Hour
- Alex Flores – Consulting Manager @ Presti & Naegele, LLC and Top-Rated QuickBooks Pro Advisor
- Hosted by Matas Pranckevicius, Content Lead @ Method
TL;DR – 7 Takeaways You Can Act On Today
- Know your landed cost down to the penny. Average cost on a spreadsheet isn’t good enough when tariffs swing 100 % overnight.
- FIFO beats “whatever’s-in-the-back” accounting. First-in, first-out lets you see margin erosion in real time and have an adult conversation with customers about price.
- Data wins, gut loses. If your “forecasting tool” is still Excel, you’re piloting a 747 with a Game Boy. Level up.
- Pre-stock critical SKUs before the next tweet turns into a tariff. Hold cash in the right inventory, not in the wrong products.
- Diversify suppliers yesterday. Multiple sources—and multiple countries—buy breathing room when policies shift.
- One source of truth matters more than one more hire. Integrate CRM, inventory, and accounting before you add headcount.
- Use Method + Katana as your windshield, QuickBooks as your rear-view mirror. Plan forward, record backward.
The State of Play: Costs Are Ballooning
- Katana’s anonymized data from 500 U.S. SMBs shows average unit cost up 30 % YoY.
- Cosmetics & pharmaceuticals took a 103 % COGS jump between Q3 2024 and Q3 2025.
If you felt that sucker punch in your own P&L, you’re not imagining it.
1. Landed Cost: Non-Negotiable, Non-Optional
If you’re not tracking customs, duty, freight—good luck knowing your margins.
Action plan
| Step | What to do | Tool stack |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Break out every cost bucket (tariff, brokerage, freight, insurance) in Katana. | Katana |
| 2 | Sync real cost per SKU to Method so sales sees true margin. | Method ↔ Katana |
| 3 | Push final numbers to QuickBooks for clean COGS. | QuickBooks |
Pro-tip: If your broker fees live in someone’s inbox, drag them into your workflow or they’ll live rent-free in your margins.
2. FIFO vs. Average Cost: Pick a Side
When a fireworks importer (yes, actual fireworks) got slapped with a 100 % tariff, they ditched average cost for FIFO to see exactly which batch was bleeding cash.
Rule of thumb
- Stable prices & slow turnover? Average cost is fine.
- Volatile prices & seasonality? FIFO shows pain early—so you can pass it on or pivot.
Changing methods mid-year is an IRS migraine. Talk to your accountant before you push the big red button.
3. Forecast Like It’s 2025, Not 2005
Dan DeLong: “QuickBooks is your rear-view mirror… there’s a bigger picture in the windshield”
What “good” looks like:
- Demand forecasting – Katana’s native tools cover most SMBs; power users bolt on StockTrim for deeper scenarios.
- Sales intelligence – look at data in Method to surface buy-trends so ops can pre-stock SKUs before a big sales push.
- Scenario planning – Test “tariff doubles” or “euro drops 15 %” in minutes, not days.
4. Supplier Diversification: Your Anti-Fragility Insurance
Local when possible, multi-country when not.
Playbook
- Grade suppliers in Katana: lead-time, price volatility, tariff exposure.
- Pipe the intel into Method to track negotiations and volume discounts.
- Activate alternates before you need them—relationships age like wine, not milk.
5. Workflow > Headcount
A messy tech stack scales chaos, not capacity.
Signs you’re there
- Three versions of “ABC Co.” in your CRM.
- Sales keeps selling SKUs that ops can’t ship.
- Accounting spends Fridays reconciling “mystery inventory.”
Fix
| Pain | Cure |
|---|---|
| Duplicate entries | Method as single point of entry for customers & orders |
| Invisible stock | Katana feeds live inventory to Method—sales sees red/yellow/green in real time |
| Month-end COGS drama | Automated sync shoots clean journals into QuickBooks |
6. Pricing Power Starts With Margin Visibility
Once landed cost and forecasting are dialed in, re-price with surgical precision:
- Bundle high-margin SKUs with low-margin essentials.
- Offer tiered pricing to offset tariff spikes (e.g., “order 500 units, lock next quarter’s price”).
- Use Method to trigger dynamic follow-ups when cost thresholds change.
7. Putting It All Together: The Method × Katana Flywheel
- Method captures every customer touch, quote, and deal.
- Katana turns those orders into smart production & procurement plans.
- QuickBooks records the financial truth—no double data-entry, no mystery.
Result: You stop firefighting and start forward-planning.
Get an adaptable CRM that can help you weather the storm
Method CRM brings quoting, order fulfillment, inventory status, and customer communication into a single workspace that talks to QuickBooks in real time—no double entry, no messy spreadsheets, no costly ERP bloat.
Built for manufacturers, distributors, and warehouse teams, it replaces manual workarounds with automated workflows, live order-to-invoice visibility, and industry-specific customization you can tailor without hiring a dev shop. The result: tighter hand-offs between sales, office, and warehouse staff, faster turnarounds for customers, and operations that scale smoothly as volume grows. See it in action—book a live demo with our team and find out how quickly you can close the gaps QuickBooks leaves behind.
