Getting data in
There are three ways to add data to an assessment, and most assessments use a mix:Connect your accounting platform
The fastest path. Salvidia reads your ledger for the reporting period and categorises the transactions. Best for broad Scope 3 coverage.
Import from CSV
Export data from any system — utility portals, travel platforms, waste contractors — and upload it. Best for bulk activity data.
Enter data directly
For small volumes — a handful of fuel receipts, one site’s electricity, refrigerant top-ups — entering it straight into the relevant table is quicker than building a spreadsheet.
Reviewing categorisation
Every transaction or activity entry lands in a category (electricity, flights, purchased services, waste, and so on), and every category maps to a scope and an emission factor. Two habits keep your assessment accurate:- Review the biggest items first. Sort by value and check the top entries. A single large miscategorised invoice distorts your results more than a hundred small ones.
- Fix the category, not the number. If something’s wrong, recategorise the entry. Never adjust results by editing quantities to compensate — it breaks the audit trail.
Avoiding double counting
The most common data-quality issue: the same emissions entering the assessment twice, once as spend and once as activity data. The classic example is electricity — you enter your kWh from bills and the ledger still contains the payments to the electricity retailer. The rule: when you add activity data for a category, exclude the corresponding spend. Salvidia’s structured tables make this manageable by giving each type of data a defined home, but the check is yours to make.Handling gaps
Missing data is normal, especially in year one. The accepted approach:- Estimate transparently. If one site’s electricity bills are missing, extrapolate from a comparable site or period, and note that you did.
- Don’t leave material categories at zero. A rough estimate with a note beats a silent gap — a zero reads as “we have no emissions here,” which is a claim.
- Record your assumptions. Anything an auditor or stakeholder might ask about later should be written down when you make the call, not reconstructed afterwards.