Onboarding support
If you'd like guidance and support while getting started with Sage Earth Carbon Accounting, please contact us.
Before you begin
If you're integrating a financial accounting platform you'll need a user logon with sufficient access to authorise the integration, and you’ll need a good understanding of the financial transactions within your accounting platform. This ensures your transactions are categorised correctly, helping Carbon Accounting to provide the most accurate estimate of your carbon footprint.
You will require access to usage information when entering data into modules. Modules can be updated at any time, so if you don’t have certain details immediately you can add them at a later date. You can find examples of the information required in our article Information you’ll need when entering data into modules.
Create your Industry Average Footprint
The first step when setting up Carbon Accounting is entering information to create your Industry Average Footprint. This is a benchmark estimate of greenhouse gas emissions for businesses in a similar sector and size to yours, based on the information entered on the welcome form. As you enter data, the Industry Average Footprint allows you to compare your activity to the average in your industry.
Find out more: The Industry Average Footprint
When creating your Industry Average Footprint, you’ll be asked for three pieces of data:
Industry classification
Select the industry and division that best represents your primary activities. A detailed explanation of how industry sectors are defined and classified in Sage Earth Carbon Accounting, along with a searchable list of classifications, is available on our SIC code classifications used in Sage Earth Carbon Accounting article.
Financial year
Provide your financial year start date. Once saved, it can’t be changed. If it is entered incorrectly, you will need to reset your account.
Revenue data
Choose one recent full financial year and input your revenue figure. We use revenue as an indicator of business size, allowing us to compare your footprint to businesses similar to yours.
Integrate your accounting platform
Find out more: Integrations
Note: If you don’t have a compatible accounting platform, please continue to the modules section below.
The first step when you land in Carbon Accounting is connecting your accounting platform. Click Start integration to begin (this can also be found in Settings > Integrations.)
Next, choose the accounting platform you’d like to connect to Sage Earth Carbon Accounting. We currently support Sage Accounting Standard and Plus, and Xero.
Select the date you want to emissions from. Carbon Accounting supports syncing from 2022 onwards. We recommend selecting the start of your financial year, though you can choose the start of a different quarter if you wish. The further back you go, the longer it may take to categorise and confirm transactions.
After selecting Continue, you may be prompted to log in to your chosen accounting platform. You’ll need administrator-level permissions in your accounting platform. Once you’ve approved access, you’ll return to Carbon Accounting and see a success message.
Syncing your accounting data usually takes a few minutes but may take longer, especially if you have a high volume of transactions. You don't need to remain on the page while the initial sync is processing. Once the sync is complete, you’ll see transactions for the date range you selected. Your transactions will be split into three sections: To Categorise, To Review and Confirmed.
Start with To Categorise – these haven’t been categorised by AI and manual categorisation action is required.
The To Review tab shows transactions categorised by AI. Check these transactions and select Confirm if the category is correct or Edit if it needs to be amended.
Once you have confirmed your transaction categories, they will move into the Confirmed tab.
For more detailed information on these sections, see our Categorising transactions from your accounting platform guide.
Once you’ve completed these steps, you have a carbon footprint based on your business’ financial transactions. To improve the accuracy of your footprint and to capture emissions for any activities which don’t have an associated financial transaction, add usage data into the Modules section.
Enter data into modules
Find out more: Information you’ll need when entering data into modules
Modules are structured sections within Carbon Accounting which group related activities under specific categories, such as energy, waste, vehicles and employee commuting. Each module focuses on a specific emissions area and follows the Greenhouse Gas Protocol scopes and sub-scopes.
Each module provides a form for:
Usage data (e.g., kWh, litres, weights)
Questions (e.g., number of remote employees)
Spend data (this is only available for users without an accounting connection)
The system validates entries and checks for missing details before saving.
You can edit data after saving, and if you mark data as unavailable, you can return later to add it once it becomes available.
Find out more: An introduction to modules in Sage Earth Carbon Accounting
The footprint page
The footprint page is an overview of your carbon footprint based on the information entered so far, broken down into sections and compared against the Industry Average Footprint.
Your total footprint
This represents the sum of all greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions for the selected date range, expressed in kilograms of CO₂e (carbon dioxide equivalent), which is the standard unit for GHG emissions.
Emissions by scopes and subscopes
Your emissions are displayed as Scopes 1, 2, and 3 following the Greenhouse Gas Protocol.
Your emissions are further segmented into sub-scopes (1.1-1.4, 3.1-3.8) for detailed reporting.
When the Industry Average toggle is enabled, this section changes to a comparative bar graph showing your business footprint versus the average for your industry. While one year of revenue is captured in the welcome form, for a more accurate view of the industry average other recent years’ revenue can be added in Settings > Business Profile.
Module emissions
Your emissions are broken down by module. Each module feeds into specific scopes and sub-scopes.
Modules can include spend and/or usage data, with usage preferred for accuracy.
Industry average data is not available at module level.
What’s next?
Categorise transactions regularly and keep modules up to date
Regularly logging into Sage Earth Carbon Accounting, categorising transactions and entering usage data into modules allows you to track trends, identify anomalies, and take corrective actions throughout the year. If you wait until year-end, details may be forgotten, and supporting documentation might be harder to retrieve.
Categorising data regularly improves the AI model’s accuracy and reduces manual effort over time.
Once you’ve entered data for all quarters of a financial year, this can be set as a baseline year. Your baseline year serves as a reference point for monitoring and measuring greenhouse gas emissions over a period, which gives you a starting point for setting your emissions reduction goal.
Once you've entered data into Sage Earth Carbon Accounting and have visibility of your footprint, you're ready to share the results. You may wish to share your Sage Earth Carbon Accounting footprint internally within your business, or externally with customers, suppliers or investors.
Our guide to carbon reduction actions provides comprehensive guidance for small businesses on reducing their climate impact through energy efficiency, sustainable operations, and responsible product design. It explains key concepts related to climate change, energy use and carbon accounting, and offers practical actions to achieve meaningful carbon reductions.