VSME reporting checklist: what information do you need?

Start with the records you already have

Choose the company, sites and reporting year first. Then ask finance, payroll and the people who run your sites for the records below. If you handle several of these roles yourself, work through one group at a time.

The checklist covers the VSME Basic Module. You can start your report before every record is ready. Some calculations and final checks come later, once you have the figures. The standard guide explains which questions depend on your business.

Tick items as you prepare. Ticks are temporary for this page visit. Print the checklist to keep a copy, with or without your checkmarks.

0 of 26 preparation items checked

Company details and reporting year

Company details, B1 and B2. Usually held by: Finance or the business owner.

Choose the company or group, the sites and the dates your report will cover.Find the company’s registration details and accounts for that period, including turnover, total assets and currency.List site addresses and countries. If you report for a group, include the subsidiaries covered.Ask for the employee total and how it was counted: people or full-time equivalents, at year end or as an average.Gather policies, planned activities, targets and certifications already in place. A short description of an existing practice can also be useful.

Electricity, fuel and emissions records

B3. Usually held by: Finance, facilities or fleet manager.

Collect electricity and heating bills for each site and the whole reporting period. Use the quantity consumed, such as kWh, rather than the amount paid.Gather fuel receipts or meter readings for vehicles, equipment and heating. Keep the original units, such as litres or cubic metres.Find any emissions calculations you already have, including the source of the conversion figures used. If you are calculating for the first time, use the guides below.Find records showing renewable energy purchases and any electricity generated and used on site, such as solar power.Ask operations whether there were other sources of direct emissions, such as refrigerant leaks or industrial processes. These need calculations beyond the energy calculator.

Water, waste and your sites

B4 to B7. Usually held by: Operations or facilities manager.

If your company already reports pollutant releases to authorities or voluntarily, gather those figures or the link to the published report.Check whether any site is in or near a sensitive natural area, such as a protected habitat. You will need the location and area of relevant sites.Find water bills or meter readings in cubic metres. Ask the landlord for your share if you use a shared office, and check whether the site is in an area with high water stress.If production uses significant amounts of water, ask for records of water taken in and discharged from those processes.Ask the waste contractor for quantities by waste type, which waste is hazardous, and how much is recycled, reused or disposed of.Note how the business reuses materials. If material use is significant, as it can be in manufacturing, gather the annual quantities used as well.

Employees, pay and working conditions

B8 to B10. Usually held by: Payroll, HR or the business owner.

Ask for employee numbers by permanent or temporary contract, gender and country where relevant. Use the same counting method as your company total.For employee turnover, collect the number of people who left and the average employee count. This question is required from 50 employees in this tool.Gather records of work-related accidents and fatalities, along with hours worked for the accident-rate calculation.Ask payroll about minimum-wage or collective-agreement pay requirements and how many employees are covered by collective bargaining agreements.Collect training hours and employee numbers by gender. The gender pay gap is optional below 150 employees in this tool and required from that size.

Business conduct and checks before finishing

B11 and final review. Usually held by: Business owner, finance or legal adviser.

Check company records for corruption or bribery convictions and fines during the reporting period.Keep the source for each figure and a note explaining any estimate. List information you still need to obtain.Work through the questionnaire’s missing-answer prompts and check that totals and breakdowns add up.Read the PDF and check names, dates, units and explanations. Confirm how your bank or customer wants to receive it.Save the finished report, a draft backup and the records behind your answers so you can return to them later.

Ask colleagues for the records you need

Give colleagues a specific reporting period and a short list of the records you need from them. Finance may have invoices, while the site manager knows which meters or premises they cover. Ask for both the figure and its source so you can resolve differences later.

Replace the bracketed details and keep only the items relevant to the recipient.

Subject: Records for [company]’s sustainability report

We are preparing a sustainability report for [company], covering [start date] to [end date]. Could you send the following records by [due date]?

Records needed: [list the relevant bills, figures or documents].
Company and sites to include: [names and locations].

For each figure, please include:
- The amount and unit, such as kWh, litres or number of employees.
- The dates and sites it covers.
- The bill, report or other record it comes from.
- A short explanation if it is an estimate.

Please flag any missing months or bills shared with another business. If a figure is not available yet, let us know what is missing and who might have it. Use zero only if you have checked that there was none.

We will use these records to complete the online report. Please include the name of someone we can contact with questions. Thank you.

Copy the text, then adapt it in your own message.

Check each reply before adding the total

Coverage: do the records cover all included sites and the whole period, without missing or duplicated months?
Shared premises: does a shared-building bill include another tenant? Record how you allocate your company’s share.
Units: keep the original quantity beside any conversion, such as 24,000 kWh becoming 24 MWh.
Employee count: check whether workforce figures describe year-end headcount, an average or full-time equivalents.

The examples below show how to turn records into questionnaire answers while retaining the evidence in your own files.

Turn a source record into a reporting answer

An answer becomes easier to review when the next person can see where it came from. These rows show how figures from the fictional engineering consultancy could be recorded. The source notes are examples too.

Scroll sideways in the table to read the example source notes.

Reporting item	Answer	Unit or basis	Example source note
Turnover	36,450,000	SEK	2025 accounts, revenue schedule. This company only, 1 January to 31 December 2025.
Purchased renewable electricity	20	MWh	Electricity schedule: 20,000 renewable kWh ÷ 1,000, out of 24,000 kWh in total. Renewable share supported by the contract records. All included sites.
Permanent employees	25	Year-end headcount	Payroll headcount at 31 December 2025. Add to the 2 temporary employees to check the total of 27.
Collective-bargaining coverage	100	Percent (%)	All 27 employees covered. The reporting field uses 100 for 100%.

Enter the answer in the corresponding questionnaire field. Keep the underlying invoice or payroll file and these source notes in your company’s own records; this tool does not store evidence attachments. For an estimate, keep the method and reason alongside the source.

What if a figure is missing?

Keep it as an open task while collecting records. Ask the landlord for shared-office utility data, the waste contractor for an annual statement or payroll for a consistent employee breakdown. A blank field means unknown; zero means you have established that there was none.

Where you use an estimate, record the activity, method, assumptions and source. For example, an allocation of a building’s water bill should say which share belongs to your company and why. Do not substitute an unsupported number simply to complete the form.

For energy calculations, the worked GHG examples show how electricity and fuel quantities become emissions figures. The emission-factor guide helps you find the conversion figures you will need.

Basis: the tool’s reporting inputs and VSME Basic Module, Annex I. Version details and conditional disclosures are maintained in the standard guide.

Start with the information you have.

Answer questions about your company and download a VSME Basic Module report to share with banks and customers. You can start with what you know and return as you gather the remaining information.

Start your report

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VSME reporting checklist.