Record sustainability entries
You can manually record greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions or water and waste intensity in the sustainability ledger by using sustainability journals. You can also use purchase documents or general journals to record GHG emissions.
[!NOTE]Posting water and waste intensity and using general journals for posting emissions will be enabled starting 2025 release wave 1. -->
Sustainability journals
Sustainability journals are designed to track and record sustainability-related activities by using the same user experience as other journals in Business Central. You can manually enter emissions and water or waste intensity in a journal. Alternatively, if you don't have the information, you can use built-in formulas to accurately calculate emissions or water or waste intensity based on parameters that correspond to various types of sources and accounts.
The information that you enter in a journal is temporary and you can change it while it's in that journal. When you post the journal, the information is transferred to sustainability ledger entries on individual sustainability accounts, where it can't be changed. However, you can post reversing or correcting entries.
Use journal templates and batches
By default, there are standard and recurring sustainability journal templates.
For each journal template, you can set up your own personal journal as a journal batch. To do so, select the Batches action on the Sustainability Journal Templates page, and then create the new Sustainability Journal Batch on the new page. For example, you can define your own journal batch for each emission scope by using the Emission Scope option and then selecting among the four existing scopes or Water/Waste option. For each batch, you can add or change the Source Code and Reason Code values.
Tip
If you have many lines, you can help reduce the risk of mistakes by having one journal batch for each emission type. Alternatively, you can use the common batch for all emission types.
Validate sustainability journals
On the Sustainability Setup page, you can turn on a background check to help prevent posting delays. If any mistakes occur while you work in the sustainability journal, the validation notifies you and prevents you from posting the journal.
When you enable the validation, the Journal Check FactBox shows issues on the current line and in the whole batch. Validation occurs when you load a journal batch and when you select another journal line. The Issues Total tile in the FactBox shows the total number of issues that Business Central found. You can select the tile to open an overview of the issues.
Work with sustainability journals
To work with sustainability journals, follow these steps:
Select the
icon, enter Sustainability Journal, and then select the related link.On the Sustainability Journal page, enter as many lines as you plan to post in the same batch.
For internal documents, you can leave the Document Type field blank. If not, you can select Invoice, Credit Memo, or GHG Credit.
In the Account No. field, you can select only nonblocked sustainability accounts where the Direct Posting field is selected and the Accounting Type field is set to Posting. The accounts must also be configured with a category and a subcategory.
Note
If you use a batch where the emission scope is configured, the Emission Scope value in the sustainability account must equal the Emission Scope value in the batch.
You can either manually fill in the emission amounts or use formulas.
- If you have accurate information about gas emission or water or waste intensity and want to post it (that is, if you have the information on the received invoice, or some other measured model), select the Manual Input field to indicate that you manually enter the amounts. In this case, you can't enter your data directly in the Fuel/Electricity, Distance, Custom Amount, Installation Multiplier, and Time Factor fields because they become uneditable. However, the Emission CO2, Emission CH4, Emission N2O, Water Intensity, Discharged Into Water, and Waste Intensity fields remain editable, and you can enter your data directly in them.
- If you don't have accurate knowledge of the gas emission or water or waste intensity and must calculate it, don't select the Manual Input field. In this case, the Emission CO2, Emission CH4, Emission N2O, Water Intensity, Discharged Into Water, and Waste Intensity fields become uneditable. However, you can enter your calculation details based on the formula that you're using. To learn more about the formulas that are defined in the sustainability account category, go to Chart of sustainability accounts and ledger.
To post the journal, select the Post action. When you post in a sustainability journal, entries are generated in the sustainability ledger.
Note
For water and waste intensity calculation, you can only use a formula with the Custom Amount that's multiplied with the emission factor from the Sustainability Account Subcategory.
Important
If your formula is based on the Calculate from General Ledger option in the sustainability account category, you must use the Collect Amount from G/L Entries action before you post the journal. The action calculates emissions based on this data source. Additionally, if you made changes to the emission factors after the journal lines were filled in, you must select the Recalculate action to get the correct amount in the journal.
Changing account subcategories in the journal line
You can have more than one Account Subcategory related to one Sustainability Account, but only one can be set as the default value. You must set the default value for the account every time if you want to use it for posting. To use a different subcategory for each account, you can easily change this value on the Sustainability Journal line, but you can only select subcategories that are already associated with the specific account and account category.
Tip
Here's an example. You want to use one account for different types of cars, but the cars have different emission factors. You can set up one account and create an account subcategory for each emission factor. When you work in your sustainability journal, you can easily change your account subcategory based on the car type you choose to use for recording emissions.
Recurring journals
A recurring journal is a sustainability journal that has specific fields for managing transactions that you often post with few, if any, changes. Examples include sustainability transactions such as electricity or heat, or other similar transactions. You can use recurring journals to post fixed and variable amounts.
When you use a recurring journal, you create the entries that you regularly post only one time. Information such as the accounts, dimensions, and dimension values remain in the journal after posting. Each time that you post, you can make any changes that are needed.
The Recurring Method field is important. It determines how the amount on the journal line is handled after posting. For example, if you use the same amount every time that you post the line, you can select the F Fixed option to let the amount remain after posting. If you use the same accounts and text on the line, but the amount varies every time that you post, you can select the V Variable option to delete the amount after posting.
The Recurring Frequency field is also important and must be set. It's a date formula field that determines how often the entry on the journal line is posted. Learn more in Use Date Formulas.
The Expiration Date field determines the date when the line is posted for the last time. The line won't be posted after that date. The advantage of using the Expiration Date field is that the line isn't immediately deleted from the journal. You can enter a later date so that you can use the line in the future. If the field is blank, the line is posted every time, until you delete it from the journal.
Purchase documents
To enable recording of greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions in any purchase-related documents, you must select the Use Emissions in Purchase Documents on the Sustainability Setup page.
To work with any purchase-related documents, follow these steps:
Select the
icon and:- Enter Purchase Invoices if you want the invoice as a Document Type, and then select the related link.
- Enter Purchase Orders if you want the order as a Document Type, and then select the related link.
Populate the header and lines based on the instructions in how to work with purchase invoices and orders.
If you have information about emissions on your invoice from the vendor, choose the appropriate Sustainability Account No. in the document lines and add emission values using one of the following fields (based on what you want to track and emissions you have on your physical invoice): Emission CO2, Emission CH4, or Emission N2O.
Note
The values you enter in the emission fields are fixed amounts per line. They aren't multiplied with the Quantity field. You can use Sustainability Account No. only when the Type field (Option Values) is Item or G/L Account. You can't use Resource or Charge (Item) Option Values.
If you want to review total emissions before posting, you can open the statistics page and find the total posted emissions and emissions for posting per document (any purchase-related documents) on the Sustainability FastTab.
Post the documents and open a new Posted Purchase Invoice.
Select the Find Entries action. You have a Sustainability Ledger Entry as one of the related entries on the Find entries page.
Note
When you post the document, for each of the purchase lines where you have Sustainability Account No., Business Central creates an independent Sustainability Ledger Entry with the Invoice as a Document Type and the same Document No..
Note
You can also create and post a Purchase Credit Memo manually, or by using the Cancel, Correct, or Create Corrective Credit Memo actions, in which case Business Central copies the existing values from the posted invoice.
General journals
You can use general journals to post gas emissions together with the financial amounts. This option is used if you want to post your incoming invoices using journals and not documents. In this situation, you can use general journals as usual, but before posting journals, you should add emissions. There isn't an option to use formulas in general journals. After you select the right Sustainability Account No. for the journal line, you can add only total emission amounts in the Total Emission CO2, Total Emission CH4, or Total Emission N2O fields. After you post, lines are recorded in the Sustainability Ledger Entries and if you included a carbon equivalent calculation, Business Central calculates it.
Note
You can select the Sustainability Account No. in the journal line only if Document Type for this line is Invoice or Credit Memo. For all other options, you can't select the Sustainability Account No. and post emissions.
Related information
Finance
Sustainability management overview
Sustainability Setup
Chart of Sustainability Accounts and Ledger
Ad-hoc analysis of sustainability data
Sustainability reports and analytics in Business Central
Sustainability API
How to work with general journals
How to work with purchase invoices and orders
Work with Business Central