Why do I need to apply categories to my accounting data?
Sage Earth applies carbon conversion factors to your spending with each supplier or transaction to work out your carbon footprint. We apply the correct carbon conversion factor by applying a category to each.
We use clever natural language processing to do this automatically, but still need your help to check these and ensure we’ve picked the best one. Over time, with the support of our community of users, Sage Earth will get better at applying the correct category and users won't have to do quite so much checking. But in the short term, we ask our customers to get in the habit of reviewing and editing the categories applied to ensure they are as accurate as possible.
The more specific the category for each supplier is, the more accurate your carbon footprint will be.
What specific accounting data do I need to apply categories to?
To remind you, accounting data from your chosen accounting platform (read here to see supported platforms) is pulled into Sage Earth to be analysed. At the highest level this contains data about:
your accounting codes (the categories used by your accounting lead to organise and track your expenditure),
your suppliers (companies supplying you with a product or service), and
your transactions with those suppliers (the purchases you make with the suppliers)
Sage Earth has built a feature that allows you to apply or edit the categories to your transactions and suppliers to help you complete the task above easily and quickly.