How do we tie our emissions data back to the general ledger?

You reconcile the spend or volume behind each emissions source to the ledger accounts that record it, and you document the differences. It is not a perfect tie and it is not meant to be. The point is completeness: the ledger is the only population in the business already complete and already audited, so it is the natural control total for showing nothing has been left out.

What is our organisational boundary and who decides it?

Your organisational boundary is the set of entities and facilities whose emissions you report, and the basis on which you include them. Management decides it, the board or audit committee approves it, and it should reconcile to the consolidated entity in your financial report. Operational control is the common Australian starting point, and the friction sits in joint ventures, leased sites, franchises and recent acquisitions.

What does an assurance provider actually test in year one?

In year one they test the disclosures inside the ASSA 5010 first-year scope: Scope 1 and Scope 2 emissions, governance disclosures, and specified strategy paragraphs on climate risks and opportunities. The work runs in a predictable order, from understanding your reporting process and your boundary, through sampling source documents and reperforming calculations, to written representations at the end.

Glossary›Assurance, audit evidence and working papers›Completeness (assertion)

Glossary term

Cluster A · A29

Tier 1 · differentiator

Completeness (assertion)

Definition

In a climate assurance engagement, completeness is the assertion that everything that should be in your emissions figure is in it: every site, vehicle, fuel type and month. It is the hardest assertion to prove because it requires evidence of what is absent. Assurers test it from the population inwards, using asset registers, lease schedules and the general ledger.

ASSA 5000

· assertions ·

In force

On this page

In practice
What the assurer does with it
Sources
Related terms
Related questions

Cluster

A · Assurance, audit evidence and working papers, 47 terms

In practice

In a financial statement audit

In a climate assurance engagement

Every transaction that occurred is recorded

Every site, vehicle, fuel type and month that should be in the emissions figure is in it

Tested against the ledger and subsidiary records

Tested against asset registers, lease schedules, utility account listings and the general ledger, because there is no emissions ledger

Completeness failures do not look like errors. The file is internally consistent, every number traces to a document, and a site is simply absent. Nothing in the emissions data points at the gap, which is why the evidence has to come from outside the emissions data.

The populations that establish completeness are the fixed asset register, the property lease schedule, the utility account listing, the fleet register, the insurance schedule, and the general ledger expense accounts. Entities acquired or disposed of mid-year, sites held under short leases, and newly commissioned assets are the recurring gaps.

What the assurer does with it

The assurer builds an independent population and agrees the emissions inventory to it, site by site. Differences are investigated. They reject a completeness assertion supported only by management’s statement that the list is complete. In year one, completeness testing is usually the largest single block of work in the engagement.