Key questions consultants should ask themselves when shortlisting carbon accounting software providers
Unless you’ve had your head buried in a rapidly desertifying patch of the Amazon, it’s impossible to be working in carbon footprinting without witnessing the explosion of carbon accounting software providers on the market today. This boom means there are some amazing tools out there for consultants to benefit from. However, the sheer volume of players bidding for your attention can be overwhelming, making working out which tool is going to benefit your business the most very hard.
This blog provides sustainability consultants with the background information you need and the questions you should ask yourself when choosing the right carbon accounting software for you.
Step 1 – Do I really need carbon accounting software, or should I stick with spreadsheets?
With the range of features and functionality of solutions out there, the short answer is that there is almost certainly a tool available that will allow you to do your work more quickly and more accurately.
However, the first question is: would I be using a tool sufficiently often to get value from it?
1) The risk of having too many tools
Most consultants already have a number of software tools they are using. Any new tool introduced must be considered alongside those already in use. If you or your consultants are not involved in actively building emissions inventories, producing carbon footprint reports, or analysing emissions data at least once a month, then a tool is not for you. Even the simplest tools require training — and we humans often forget things we are not putting into practice!
Minimum requirement: clear efficiency gains
A credible consultant-focused tool should demonstrate:
- Significant reductions in time spent collecting activity data
- Meaningful time savings in producing calculations and reports
- Accuracy improvements through automation rather than manual data handling
If a provider can’t clearly explain how the software saves you measurable time, it’s unlikely to earn its place in your toolkit.
2) Would I get a return on investment?
As mentioned, almost certainly there is a tool out there that can help you, but the question is whether it will deliver return on investment. This can be a tricky thing to work out, but if providers do not have prices for consultants, then you can assume getting a return on investment will be hard. Solution providers focused exclusively on large enterprises will rarely deliver ROI for price-sensitive consultants.
Minimum requirement: consultant-friendly commercial model
Step 2 – Does the tool add value in the areas I need it to?
Different tools are set up to cater for different types of users. Broadly, we see sustainability consultants requiring help with:
- data collection
- ensuring robust calculation
- easy analysis
- efficient reporting
Check the features and functionality that providers have around these core areas and how they align to your current process.
Minimum requirements for each category
- Data collection
Your tool should offer:
- A simple way for non technical clients to enter their activity data and basic approval mechanism for consultants to ensure complete inventory
- The ability for consultants to enter activity data via excel as well as directly input through the platform
- Automated validation checks to flag unusual or incorrect entries
- Ensuring robust calculation
You should expect:
- An integrated library of up-to-date emission factors
- The ability to upload or create custom emission factors
- Automatic handling of WTT and T&D emissions
Robustness is essential, if the tool acts like a black box, that’s a liability.
- Easy analysis
Look for:
- Look for flexibility from the dashboards, can you extract data in a similar way to your current process
- Year-on-year comparison views, sounds simple but many solutions lack this
- The ability to track reduction targets and performance
If you still need to use Excel or PowerPoint to extract insights, the software isn’t doing enough.
- Efficient reporting
Minimum expectations should include:
- More than just dashboards, export reports should be available
- Automation workflows for producing client footprint reports
- Template reports that can save consultants hours
A good tool should halve your reporting time, not add extra admin.
AI Road Map. Understanding how solutions are currently using and plan to use AI in the future is important to ensure you select at a tool that will keep pace as the market develops.
Best in class AI features supercharge existing manual processes delivering efficiencies in areas such as understanding data, assigning emissions factors and forecasting.
Step 3 – Is this tool just for improving my internal efficiency, or do I want to promote it externally?
Some consultants simply want something that makes their processes faster and more accurate. Others want to showcase technology as part of their brand, positioning their consultancy as tech-savvy market leaders.
If you want to promote the tool as your own, then make sure the provider allows you to brand the tool without excessive costs.
Minimum requirement: brandability
The software should:
- Allow full custom branding so clients see the platform as your consultancy’s system
- Allow you to manage client logins and project environments under your brand identity
If you can’t white-label or customise the platform, you are essentially promoting someone else’s product.
Conclusion
By asking yourself these questions, around usage frequency, ROI, workflow alignment, feature relevance, and branding potential, you’ll be in a far stronger position to identify which carbon accounting software is truly the right fit for your consultancy.
Focusing on these minimum requirements helps ensure you select a platform that supports your productivity, enhances your accuracy, and elevates your market presence as you scale.
For information on how Faradai go beyond these minimum requirements and help consultants win more business, retain their clients longer and deliver work more profitably.