Approach to spend-based emissions – debits or net?

Emission factor databases
1

Hi everyone,

For spend-based emission calculations, which accounting data do you use as your basis?
We’re curious to hear how others approach this!

  • Only debits (expenses)
  • Net: debits minus credits (e.g. income or refunds)

We’re particularly interested because it’s sometimes unclear how to treat credits—whether they reflect actual income, refunds, or something else.

Thanks in advance for sharing your insights!

Kind regards,
Jelte Liekens

2

I would work with net (debits minus credits) because that gives you the actual spend for a certain product or service. That being said, if there is a big credit for a certain supplier/product/service, I would recommend to check with the finance department how come.