Carrying costs include expenses related to holding inventory such as storage, maintenance, insurance, opportunity costs and losses from theft. Examples of carrying costs are money tied up in inventory, storage costs, insurance premiums, taxes, inventory obsolescence and spoilage. Contribution margin is a measure of profitability calculated as revenue minus variable costs. It can be used to analyze the ability of a product or company to cover variable costs. Conversion costs are manufacturing costs other than the costs of raw materials, such as direct labor and overhead required to transform raw materials into finished goods.