How can Trace help me prepare for ASRS?

Who Trace works with

Trace specialises in AASB S2 and has supported more than 40 organisations across Groups 1, 2 and 3 to prepare for their obligations, including some of Australia's first mandatory reporters.

We specialise in helping businesses that are large enough to carry a mandatory climate reporting obligation, but not large enough to have a dedicated sustainability reporting team. More often than not, the work lands with the CFO, financial controller, Chief Risk Officer, company secretary or sustainability lead, on top of a plate that was already full.

You may have no background in climate risk or emissions accounting, yet you are the person accountable to the board and the auditor for getting it right, against a fixed deadline. The standard tells you what to disclose but not what "enough" looks like, and the quotes you have seen for full support can be hard to justify for a compliance requirement. What you are likely looking for is not a transformation programme, but confidence: that you are doing what is required, that it will hold up to assurance, and that it won't take over your year.

If that describes you, Trace is here to help!

Trace's track record with auditors

Trace deliverables have been through assurance with all of the Big 6 audit firms in Australia.

In the first reporting cycles, auditors consistently asked for more evidence than preparers expected, and assurance became a workstream in its own right. Anticipating what an assurance provider will ask to see reduces the number of report iterations.

How Trace works

Trace is an end-to-end climate reporting platform combining smart technology with climate experts who have your back. 

• The platform automates the repeatable work. Data mapping, emissions calculations, risk identification, gap analysis and disclosure drafting are autatomated with AI.

• Experts make the judgement calls. Materiality, financial effects and responses to auditor queries require judgement that a platform cannot provide. Trace consultants lead these decisions and keep the programme on track.

• Evidence is captured as the work happens. Every source, assumption, methodology and sign-off is recorded in one system of record, so the evidence trail is in place when assurance begins. 

• The Platform remembers your context. Methodology decisions, meeting notes, data and evidence are retained into Year 2 and beyond, so later years build on existing work rather than repeating it.

Trace's viewpoint and approach

The right amount of compliance is achievable, and it is usually less than businesses fear and more than they first assume.

The difficulty with AASB S2 is that "enough" is not clearly defined. That uncertainty leads businesses either to do far more than required, or to do too little and find the gaps at audit. Applied proportionately, the standard provides a clear enough line.

Trace applies a principle of Minimum Viable Compliance because we understand that the right amount of compliance beats too much or too little.

Most organisations approach AASB S2 as a compliance requirement rather than a transformation programme. MVC provides an audit-ready path without gold-plating:

• Tightly scoped to what AASB S2 requires. Every pillar is addressed, with depth scaled to your circumstances.
• Year 1 requirements first, with available relief applied. Anything not yet mandatory is deferred, and transitional provisions for first-year reporters are used where they apply. There is more on available relief [here](→ Relief overview: what is available across all pillars).
• Everything documented as it happens. Methodologies, assumptions and data sources are recorded during the work, not reconstructed when audit asks for them.

MVC is not the cheapest possible report. It is the smallest report that fully complies and withstands assurance. Read more about Trace's approach to proportionality here.

The Trace workstreams and how they map to AASB S2

AASB S2 is structured around four pillars: Governance, Strategy, Risk Management, and Metrics and Targets. The pillars structure what you disclose, but they do not describe how i.e. the work required to get there.

Trace organises that work into seven modular workstreams, so you take on only those you need and handle others internally where you have the capability.

Read more about what each workstream involves on our Products & Services page.

Common mistakes when preparing for AASB S2 disclosure

• Overscoping. Businesses facing a new requirement often choose the most comprehensive option and commission work the standard does not require. Voluntary content adds fees, expands what the auditor must review, and increases what must be maintained in Year 2.
  
• Leaving it too late. Ambiguity in the standard encourages delay, but the workload does not reduce as the reporting period runs down. Early reporters consistently said they wished they had started sooner.
• Underestimating the risk assessment. Assessing CRROs and their financial effects was the most difficult part of first-year reports. Common problems were identifying the wrong risks, being unable to defend materiality judgements, and failing to connect risks to financial consequences.
• Too many report iterations. A well-prepared cycle needs one strong draft and one feedback round. Auditors of early reports commonly saw five or six versions, each triggering a full re-review and additional assurance fees.
• Treating assurance as the final step. Auditors request significantly more evidence than most preparers anticipate. Evidence not captured during the work has to be assembled under time pressure at year end.

Relevant links

• Which reporting group am I in?
•  What assurance applies to your climate disclosure, and when? 
• The four pillars of AASB S2: what each requires
• Relief overview: what is available across all pillars