ESRS report, step 2: prepare the data collection

After you have confirmed the scope of your report, you are ready to prepare the data collection. Once you begin this step, you will see all the standards (e.g., E1, S1, G1, etc.), all disclosure requirements (e.g., BP-1, E1-1, etc.), and data points that you selected in Step 1 for the report, distributed across the four groups: General Disclosures, Environmental, Social, and Governance.

In the second step, you now have the opportunity to set up the data collection. You can do the following:

• Assign entire disclosure requirements to a colleague
  
  
  

  

  
  
• Select a data point for "manual" data collection
  
  
  
• Select a data point for "aggregated" data collection
  
  

What do "manual" and "aggregated" data collection mean?

Manual data collection means that you either (1) open a data point and answer it yourself or forward it to a colleague, or (2) use Daato’s collaboration feature to collaborate with selected experts.

1. Answering a data point yourself or requesting an answer from a colleague This is useful if it’s a simple yes/no question that affects the entire organization. An example of this is ESRS 2 "(BP-1 5 a) What is the basis for preparing your sustainability statement? Was it prepared on a consolidated or individual basis?", where the answer is either "consolidated" or "individual". This question can typically be answered by one person at the group level—either by you or by requesting the answer from a colleague, as shown here.
2. Collaboration – Answering a data point together with selected experts For qualitative questions, it may be necessary to gather input from multiple experts within the company, as they each possess specific knowledge that, when combined, provides the full answer to the respective data point. You can use Daato’s "collaboration" feature for this. An example of this is ESRS 2 "(GOV-5 36 a) Describe the scope, main features, and components of the risk management and internal control processes and systems that your organization applies to sustainability reporting." Here, it may be beneficial to collect input from two or three colleagues from the risk management team, each with different expertise. Each of them can contribute parts of the answer, and you can then summarize them into one final answer.

Aggregated data collection means that this data point is sent to a larger group of entities, e.g., all subsidiaries or all locations, along with all other data points selected for aggregated data collection. The recipient receives a request with all the data points selected for aggregated data collection and assigned to them. An example of this is ESRS 3-4 "(E3-4 28 a) Water consumption," which is sent to all entities, locations, etc., and then aggregated into one total based on all inputs.

The aggregation is based on the organizational structure and assigned users. It allows data to be collected from various units simultaneously with one click, and the responses are automatically aggregated.

For each data point, you can also click the pencil icon to provide background information about the respective data point, which all potential recipients can then access and view, such as internal descriptions.

What’s next?

Once you have reviewed all the standards, disclosure requirements, and data points and selected the data collection method, click on "Complete Step," and you can proceed to Step 3, where you can actually enter and collect the data.

Can I still make changes to the assignments after starting data collection?

Yes, but all ongoing queries will be stopped if step 2 is reopened. Therefore, it is important to carefully consider in this step who should be assigned and involved.

If I want to enter answers myself, what should I do?

Select manual data collection and assign yourself.

If I assign multiple disclosure requirements to a person, will they receive a single or multiple notifications?

After the assignment in Step 2, the person receives a single email informing them about multiple assigned disclosure requirements. However, once data collection starts in Step 3, they will receive a separate email for each assigned disclosure requirement.