When setting up Sage Earth Carbon Accounting for your business for the first time, or if you’ve reset your account, you’ll be asked for some details about your business to start building an accurate carbon footprint.

This guide covers the key information you need to begin using Sage Earth Carbon Accounting, including setup requirements, ideal users, and onboarding timelines.

To begin using Sage Earth Carbon Accounting, you'll need to provide some key information about your business.

Provide your financial year start date. This helps us determine the periods for data entry and reporting.

Share your revenue figure for a full financial year, starting from 2022 onwards. This data is used to generate your Industry Average Footprint. By using revenue as an indicator of business size, Sage Earth Carbon Accounting ensures the industry average figures are relevant to businesses similar to yours.

Your business will be classified using the industry sectors in the Standard Industrial Classification (SIC) code system. A more detailed explanation of how these industry sectors are defined and classified in Sage Earth Carbon Accounting is available here.

This classification is used in emissions calculation and in generating your Industry Average Footprint.

Find out more:

The Industry Average Footprint

SIC code classifications used in Sage Earth Carbon Accounting

​

To get the most out of Sage Earth Carbon Accounting, your administrator user(s) should be familiar with your business’s financial systems. If you're integrating a financial accounts package, you'll need an admin with sufficient access to authorise the integration.

Recommended administrators in Sage Earth Carbon Accounting are an accountant, finance lead or operations manager.

If you’re connecting your accounting platform, do this first. Once your transactions have synchronised, they will be categorised by our AI engine. Usage data entered within modules will then auto-link to the spend data from your accounting software, ensuring your business activity isn’t counted twice.

See our Integrations guide for support with connecting your accounting platform.

If your business doesn’t use compatible accounting software, you can still input data manually. Our tool provides guided modules to help you build your carbon footprint step-by-step. Each module introduction will specify the data you'll need, such as energy statements or employee numbers.

Start by entering all of the data for all modules for at least one quarter, completing each module in the list in the order they appear. For more information on the categories within each module, see Categorisation in the Sage Earth Carbon Accounting Taxonomy.

Most businesses become comfortable with data input and transaction confirmation within 3 months.

The tool’s AI-driven engine learns your spending patterns over time, improving efficiency and reducing the time needed to confirm or amend categories.

We only support data from 2022 because some of the datasets used in our carbon measurement methodology aren’t available before then. Older data also tends to be less relevant in carbon measurement. Your recent operations provide a more accurate picture of your current carbon footprint.

Your financial year start date is set during company setup and isn’t imported from your accounting platform. Once saved, it can’t be changed. If it was entered incorrectly, you’ll need to reset your account and start again - so it’s important to enter the correct date from the beginning.

Currently, Sage Carbon Earth Accounting only supports a standard 12-month financial year.

We use a condensed version of the UK Office for National Statistics' SIC codes. While the full list includes detailed subcategories (e.g. “growing of rice”), Sage Earth Carbon Accounting uses a middle-level grouping of Industry Division (e.g. 'Farming and hunting') - more specific than the Industry as described by SIC code (e.g. Agriculture), but not as granular as individual activities.

During the setup process, Sage Earth Carbon Accounting asks you to select the industry your business operates in, so that the relevant SIC code can be applied. Some businesses may not have a SIC code or have more than one. In these instances (or where you don't know), select the code that best represents your primary business activity or largest revenue source. This can help in aligning your business with the most relevant industry emissions factors.

Find out more:
​SIC code classifications used in Sage Earth Carbon Accounting

Sage Earth Carbon Accounting FAQs

Sage Earth Carbon Accounting Scientific FAQs

Integrations