Where will your auditor find gaps in your first climate report?

A free guide for Group 2 reporters, built from 40+ AASB S2 projects across Group 1, 2 and 3. Four printable checklists show what your auditor will test in your first report under the Australian Sustainability Reporting Standards (ASRS), what's required but not assured, and what can wait.

CFOsFinance DirectorsSustainability ManagersRisk & ComplianceBoard Members
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AASB Australia's Mandatory Climate Reporting

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See What’s Inside

Four checklists, one for each pillar of AASB S2

It opens with what your auditor checks in year one, then gives you a checklist for each pillar and a one-minute check on how much help you need.

What your auditor checks in year one

Limited assurance in year one covers governance, your climate risks and opportunities, and your Scope 1 and 2 emissions. Apart from Scope 3 and prior-year comparatives, everything else in AASB S2 is still required, and your auditor still reads it. A single table shows what's assured now and what's assured from year two.

Governance, the gap you can't fix later

Seven checks cover who oversees climate, how often the board is briefed and whether the minutes show it. Your auditor looks for oversight across the whole reporting period, so a first briefing in month ten leaves nine months with no evidence. Print it and take it to your next board or audit committee meeting.

Strategy and risk management

Thirteen checks cover identifying and classifying each climate risk, time horizons, effects on your business model and finances, scenario analysis and how your risk process works. Each item is tagged as assured in year one or required but not assured, so you know which gaps carry the most weight.

Metrics, targets and where to get help

Six checks cover Scope 1 and 2 emissions, the cross-industry metrics and any targets you've set or must meet. A one-minute check then shows whether your team can close its gaps in house, needs a hybrid model or should outsource, based on the experience it already has.

Key Findings

What auditors and Group 1 reporters told us

These lessons came up again and again across first-year AASB S2 reports. Most of them aren't obvious from the standard itself, and they decide where your effort should go first.

Governance can't be backfilled

Auditors look for board oversight that operated across the whole reporting period, backed by agendas and minutes. If the board's first climate briefing happens in month ten, there's no way to create evidence for the months before it. That's why governance is the one area to get running now.

Not assured doesn't mean not read

Your auditor reads the whole report and checks it for consistency with the assured sections and your financial statements. Group 1 reporters who treated unassured sections as optional still got feedback on them. Give those sections the same discipline as everything else.

Every risk needs a line to the financials

Auditors often saw climate risks that weren't connected to financial consequences, with materiality judgements left undocumented. Group 1 reporters said choosing the right risks, and defending why some were material, was the hardest part. Write down each judgement and its reasoning as you make it.

Everyone underestimates the effort

Preparation, coordination and evidence requests were consistently bigger than first-wave reporters budgeted for, and the requests arrived at the busiest time of year. Auditors want a documented source, method and sign-off behind every number and judgement. Building that trail as you go keeps year end manageable.

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Who This Is For

Written for the people
making ASRS decisions

This ebook is written at CFO grade, with enough detail to be genuinely useful to sustainability leads and risk teams. Not a primer. Not a sales deck.

CFOs & Finance Directors

Responsible for signing off on the disclosure. Needs to understand what auditors will scrutinise in year two, and where the financial integration gaps are in first-round disclosures.

Sustainability Managers & ESG Leads

Building the disclosure internally. Needs to understand what peers are doing on Scope 3, scenario analysis and materiality so the internal benchmark is calibrated correctly.

Risk & Compliance Teams

Needs to understand where governance documentation is falling short in first-round disclosures and what auditors are already flagging as areas for year-two improvement.

Board Members & Audit Committee

Accountable for climate risk oversight under AASB S2. Needs a clear picture of what comparable entities are disclosing and what the governance standard looks like in practice.

This ebook is particularly relevant if:

Your entity is likely to fall under ASRS Group 1, 2 or 3 (or you're not yet sure which group applies)

Your board or audit committee has asked about climate disclosure obligations for the first time

You're preparing a Group 2 first disclosure and want to learn from what Group 1 entities got right and wrong

You need to brief internal stakeholders on what AASB S2 actually requires versus what others are choosing to include

What Comes Next

From ebook to
compliant disclosure.

01

Download the ebook

Understand what first reporters did. Where they focused, where they struggled, and what auditors are already signalling for year two.

Get it now

02

Run your readiness assessment

Trace maps your current data, governance and reporting position against ASRS requirements. You get a clear picture of where you are and a prioritised gap list.

See how it works

03

Build your compliance roadmap

Trace turns your readiness assessment into a sequenced plan: what to do now, what to prepare for year two, and how to keep your board and audit committee informed throughout.

Book a call with our team

Questions we hear most from ASRS teams

These are the questions Trace’s team hears most often from CFOs and sustainability leads starting their ASRS journey. The full ebook answers all of them in depth.

What does an auditor check in a Group 2 company's first climate report?
In your first year under the Australian Sustainability Reporting Standards (ASRS), limited assurance covers three areas: governance, the identification and description of your climate-related risks and opportunities, and your Scope 1 and 2 emissions. Risk management, scenario analysis, effects on your business model and finances, the cross-industry metrics and climate targets are required but not assured until year two. Scope 3 emissions and prior-year comparatives aren't required in year one. Your auditor still reads the whole report and checks it for consistency with the assured sections and your financial statements.
How do we know if we're ready for climate assurance?
Work through each pillar of AASB S2 and tick an item only when you have the evidence to hand your auditor, not just the intention. Every unticked item is a gap. Close gaps in the areas assured in year one first, starting with governance, because governance evidence has to exist across the whole reporting period and can't be created after year end. Then move to the required but unassured sections, which your auditor will still read for consistency. The guide's four checklists are set out this way so you can see your gaps at a glance.
What governance evidence do auditors expect under AASB S2?
Auditors expect to see that climate oversight operated throughout the reporting period, not just that it exists on paper. That means a named board or committee with climate written into its charter or terms of reference, evidence of how it is building the right skills, briefings on a set schedule, and minutes showing climate was considered in strategy, major transactions and risk decisions. Management's role should be defined, along with how it reports to the board. If you say directors discuss climate quarterly, it needs to be on the agenda and in the minutes every quarter.
Do sections that aren't assured in year one still matter?
Yes. Under AASB S2, risk management, scenario analysis, financial effects and the cross-industry metrics are required in year one even though they aren't assured until year two. Your auditor reads the whole report and checks it for consistency with the assured sections and your financial statements, so a contradiction in an unassured section can still draw questions. Group 1 reporters who treated these sections as optional still received auditor feedback on them. Applying the same documentation discipline in year one also means less rework when they become assured.
What do Scope 1 and 2 emissions need for year one assurance?
Scope 1 and 2 emissions are assured from your first year, so they need to cover the full reporting period, with the method, inputs and assumptions documented. Scope 2 should be reported on a location-based basis, with any contractual instruments disclosed, and emissions need to be split between your consolidated group and other investees such as associates and joint ventures. Auditors told us every number and judgement needs a documented source, method and sign-off they can trace, so build that trail as data comes in rather than at year end.
Should we prepare our first AASB S2 report in house or get help?
It depends on the experience your team already has. If someone has prepared climate disclosures before, you've had non-financial information assured, you have a reliable Scope 1 and 2 inventory, someone can dedicate meaningful time each week and you've run a climate risk assessment, you can probably lead in house with targeted support. With two or three of those, a hybrid model usually works best: your team owns the data, governance and risk ranking, and specialists help with emissions, the climate risk assessment and disclosure, where judgement matters most. With fewer, consider outsourcing.

Want deeper answers? The ebook has entity benchmarks, worked examples and expert commentary.

Download the full ebook →

Your deadline is coming.
Start with the data.

Download the free ebook and see what Australia’s first AASB S2 reporters have already disclosed. Then talk to Trace about where you stand.

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