Most businesses come to carbon reporting because someone has asked for something, not because they know the jargon. This week's changes are about making that first step easier: knowing what you need, understanding the words on the screen, and not typing the same figures twice.

A "Which do I need?" page

The new Which do I need? guide is organised by situation rather than by product. A buyer or tender asks for a Carbon Reduction Plan, you supply the NHS, your accountant mentions SECR, a customer sends a carbon questionnaire, you import steel or aluminium, you need to sort your workplace waste: each line names the free tool to check with first, what a plan does, and an add-on only where one fits. Most businesses need no add-on at all, and the page says so.

Words such as tCO2e, SECR and VSME are now tap-to-explain: a dotted underline opens a short card with the definition from our carbon reporting glossary, which has five new entries.

The app in plain English

  • Overview: tCO2e, location-based, market-based and Scopes 1, 2 and 3 explain themselves when tapped, and a "What next?" note points to Reports once setup is done.
  • Welcome: no procurement or reporting jargon, with links to the free Carbon Reduction Plan and SECR checks and to Which do I need?.
  • Reports: each report links to its free check ("Not sure? Check in a minute"), and the SECR card says what quoted and large mean.
  • Settings: says the defaults suit almost every business and explains each method choice in a sentence.
  • Add data: passenger-km, tonne-km, homeworking hours, gross CV and grey fleet are explained with worked examples.
  • One name per page: "Activity data" is now "Your data" and "Import CSV" is now "Upload a spreadsheet", matching the menu.

Your figures carried into the trial

Once you have typed your own amounts into the kWh to CO2e calculator, its button reads "Start your free trial with these figures". The Climate Change Levy check does the same with the electricity and gas kWh you entered. The figures are saved in that browser only when you press the button, and kept for 30 days at most. After sign-up, the app offers "Add these figures" with a year picker, or "No thanks". For example, 30,000 kWh of office electricity becomes an entry of 3.93 tonnes of CO2e with the 2026 UK government factor, already in your first year.

Free tool results point to the next step

Free tools that tell you that you need something now say what does it. A "yes" from the SECR check offers the SECR report on the free trial. A "yes, register" from the CBAM check points to the CBAM pack (£49 a month + VAT, no plan needed). The Simpler Recycling check points to the Waste log (£9 a month + VAT, added to a plan).