Xero has announced a significant partnership with Sumday, the advisor-first carbon accounting platform. The partnership's aim is to enable accountants worldwide to manage their own and their clients' carbon accounting.

This international alliance has the objective of helping small businesses understand their emissions to an audit-ready standard with the assistance of their trusted advisor. The process plays a significant role in the journey towards achieving net-zero carbon emissions for small businesses globally.

Dr Tamara Somers, Xero's Director of Sustainability and ESG, noted, “Regulators are increasingly signalling mandated carbon accounting globally, making it a non-negotiable for businesses large and small. We’re excited to be partnering with Sumday, to enable accountants and bookkeepers on the Xero platform across the world to account for their carbon emissions and support their clients in their efforts.”

She further explained the reasons for allying with Sumday: “Sumday’s commitment to enabling the accounting and bookkeeping community through education on how and why measuring carbon emissions is important is a big part of what drew us to partner with them.”

Jessica Richmond, the CEO and Co-founder of Sumday, emphasised the vitality of making carbon accounting business as usual for all organisations, regardless of their size. Making it “accessible and affordable,” she says, is key to tracking progress towards net zero and ensuring businesses can comply with stakeholders’ increasing need for emissions data.

Richmond stated the quality of this partnership: “By partnering with Xero, we can make sure that timely and accurate data is in their hands with the help of an advisor they trust.”

The integration of Sumday’s system into Xero provides straightforward access to relevant financial and activity data. Businesses can then code transaction data to the relevant emissions source in Sumday and create a comprehensive carbon general ledger report. This report ensures audit readiness and facilitates easy reconciliation with financials.

Dr Somers disclosed that Xero will use Sumday for their own carbon accounting. This step furthers Xero's in-house carbon accounting expertise in alignment with global carbon accounting standards and Xero’s own net-zero commitments. She said, “Xero has firmly established our commitment to sustainability and ensuring that small businesses and their advisors have the tools and education to understand carbon impacts and the role they can play.”

She also expressed her hopes regarding the impact of their decision: “By partnering with Sumday to enhance Xero’s own carbon emissions reporting, we hope to inspire advisors and small businesses to join the transition to a net-zero economy by taking the leap and accurately measuring their own emissions using the powerful tools connected to the Xero platform.”

Sumday is now available globally to accountants and bookkeepers through the Xero App Store.