Companies that want to increase profitability or even maintain their existing level of profits in the current economic environment are shifting their focus toward cost reduction instead of revenue growth due to the overall lack of spending by consumers. However, organizations must realize that they cannot blindly slash costs. In order to have a successful cost reduction strategy, organizations need to understand as much as possible about their current cost base. A great way to gain this cost transparency is to conduct Activity-Based Costing (ABC) studies. These studies have been most prevalent in back office functions because the first places organizations tend to look to make cuts is in non-revenue producing areas or support services departments. This article discusses some of the advances being made with Activity-Based Costing studies in shared services departments and also reviews some of the common questions that need to be answered when implementing an ABC model.