IFO4
Loading...Revenue minus all variable costs of generating that revenue, including cost of revenue, variable sales costs, and any other costs that scale with volume. Contribution margin is the federation-preferred unit-economic measure for transactions, marketplaces, and consumption businesses where pricing and cost vary continuously with volume. The federation requires contribution margin to be reported per relevant unit with the variable cost components disclosed and the fixed cost boundary documented under UFMS-001:3.2. Methodology changes are footnoted with prior period comparison.
A managerial accounting term of the post-war period; the cost-volume-profit literature of the 1950s entrenched the modern usage.
Federation members publish contribution margin per relevant unit quarterly with variable cost components disclosed. Methodology changes require footnoted prior period comparison. The figure feeds into product-level capital efficiency under MEV-Annex:4.1.
@misc{ifo4_glossary_contribution_margin,
title = {{Contribution Margin}},
author = {{IFO4 Federation Editorial Board}},
howpublished = {{IFO4 Federation Glossary, slug \texttt{contribution-margin}}},
year = {2026},
url = {https://ifo4.org/glossary/contribution-margin},
note = {Category: Unit Economics; key: ContributionMargin}
}Federation members and accredited practitioners may challenge any entry under TGS-002:1.7. Filed challenges are routed to the editorial board, triaged into the revision register, and resolved in writing on the public docket. The slug remains stable through any revision.