Carbon accounting software for SMEs
You have two weeks. You will need two hours.
Your client wants your emissions, and you have neither an ESG department nor a consulting budget. Drop in the accounting file you already have, answer a few questions, send your report today.
What is at stake
A carbon questionnaire decides whether you stay on the panel.
Your client has to declare the emissions of its value chain. You are part of it, so the request comes down to you. Suppliers who answer stay on the panel. The others drop off, often without being told.
The same requirement now arrives through other doors. Your bank looks at these criteria when it studies a loan. Public and private tenders ask for them. Rating platforms score what you declare, and no answer counts as a bad answer.
The sticking point
The calculation takes an hour. The collection takes weeks.
The energy invoices sit with a supplier, the mileage in expense claims, the tonnages with the carrier, the purchases in the general ledger. Bringing all that together ties up several people who have other things to do, and it will have to start again next year.
That is the range of a consulting engagement for an SME. The amount is justified for a thorough programme. It is not justified for answering a client questionnaire.
Source: Bpifrance, Bilan carbone d’entreprise, 29 June 2026.
As for the platforms on the market, they are designed for the company sending you the request, not for the one receiving it.
Your deliverable
A report to send, and what it takes to answer the next question.
The report
A PDF file you send as it is: breakdown of your emissions, main contributors, indicators, method and statement. Aligned with the GHG Protocol and with the ESRS E1 disclosure requirements.
The exports
Not everyone asks you for the same format. You get one export for BEGES, CDP and EcoVadis, and another for the VSME standard.
The action plan
Your emission categories ranked by weight, with costed reduction actions. When your client asks what you have done, you will have the answer.
Three steps
The file does most of the work.
Drop in your accounting file
The one your accountant hands you every year. Pennylane and Sage exports and the FEC are recognised with no setup, and any other CSV or Excel export with French headers is detected automatically.
Answer the questionnaire
Questions in plain language: your energy, your travel, your deliveries, your waste, the heating of your premises. When you have a measured figure, kWh or kilometres, Oakbon prefers it to the amount in euros and your result gains in accuracy.
Download and send
The report is generated and downloaded. You answer your client straight away.
The pitfalls
Four mistakes that lose you the contract.
Answering on Scope 1 and Scope 2 only
It is Scope 3 that your client is waiting for, since your emissions appear there in its own accounts. According to CDP, it represents 70 to 90 % of emissions depending on the sector.
Sending a spreadsheet
It states neither the method, nor the source of the factors, nor the base year. It will come back with questions, and you will have to start over.
Estimating by guesswork
An untraceable figure costs more than an imperfect but sourced one. Oakbon writes into the report the version of the factors used.
Waiting until the last day
Collecting energy consumption is what takes the longest. The rest comes from your accounts, and it is already there.
The question of price
Why pay, when it is free elsewhere?
A consulting engagement costs from 1 000 to 10 000 € excl. VAT for an SME.
Source of the range: Bpifrance, Bilan carbone d’entreprise, 29 June 2026.
The French state ESG portal
The French state ESG portal gives you the frame of the report, free of charge, and that is a good thing. It does not calculate your emissions: you are the one filling in the boxes. Finding what to put in them is the work. Oakbon starts from your accounting file and produces the figures.
The spreadsheet
A spreadsheet is free as long as you do not count the hours. You have to track down the invoices, choose the factors, redo the sum, and start again from scratch the following year. With Oakbon, your accounting file does the first sort, and next year you pick up where you left off.
The one-off free report
A first free report gives you a document. Your client will ask you for the same one next year, and will want to see what has come down. Oakbon keeps your history, your base year and your action plan from one year to the next.
Your data
Your accounts never leave your premises.
Your file is read inside your browser. The calculation runs on your own machine. Our servers only receive totals per emission category, never your entries, your amounts or the names of your suppliers.
Hosted by OVH in France · AES-256-GCM encryption with a key of its own for your company · your footprint stays available in your workspace.
Frequently asked questions
What company directors ask us.
Will my client accept a report produced by software?
They expect figures, a method and a source. The report carries all three, with the version of the ADEME factors used and a stated uncertainty margin.
How long, honestly?
Two hours if you have your accounting export and your energy invoices to hand. The questionnaire is the longest part.
Do we need someone who knows the subject?
The journey is built for a finance department. No technical vocabulary is required.
Are we required to do this?
The French obligation applies to companies with more than 500 employees, and more than 250 in the French overseas regions and departments (article L229-25 of the French environment code). Below that, the request comes from your clients and your bank.
And next year?
You redo the footprint on the new financial year, with the same method. Oakbon compares the two years and places your trajectory.
Your client is waiting. The file, you already have it.
69 € excl. VAT a month, no commitment.