# What must we show Gold Standard about our project finances at renewal?

Canonical: https://senseible.earth/answers/gold-standard-ongoing-financial-need-renewal

A short narrative, backed by an overview of project finances, showing how certification income matters to the project. It covers income and outgoings, including certification-related cost and revenue. The auditor validates it, it can stay confidential, and it does not decide whether you renew.

## Who must show it

Projects that had to demonstrate financial additionality must also show ongoing financial need. It is shown at Design Certification Renewal, which falls at the fifth year of the certification cycle.

## What goes in the narrative

- Key categories and amounts, or relative proportions in percent, of project income and outgoings.
- The share of certification-related cost and revenue within those.
- How the money from Gold Standard certification helps sustain or improve the project.

## How it is treated

- Mandatory to submit.
- Not used to decide whether the project renews.
- Validated by the VVB for accuracy.
- May stay confidential, submitted with other documents and not published on the Impact Registry.
- Gold Standard asks no more than clarification questions.

## Start keeping it now

Keep one yearly sheet of income, outgoings, certification cost and certification revenue. The renewal narrative then takes an afternoon, not a month.

## Example with made-up proportions

- Income: product sales 70%, certification revenue 20%, energy savings 10%.
- Outgoings: operations 65%, monitoring and certification cost 15%, loan repayment 20%.
- Narrative: certification revenue covers the monitoring cost and part of the loan, so it keeps the project running.

Example only.

## What Senseible does here

Senseible is not a registry or an auditor. It keeps dated energy and invoice records per site, which can support the cost lines of the sheet.

- [Carbon credit signals](https://senseible.earth/carbon-credits)
- [Verra or Gold Standard: which to choose](https://senseible.earth/answers/verra-or-gold-standard-which-to-choose)
- [Years of credits](https://senseible.earth/answers/gold-standard-how-many-years-of-credits)

Sources: [Gold Standard for the Global Goals, Principles and Requirements v2.1 (January 2025), 4.1.51 to 4.1.53 and 5.1.1](https://globalgoals.goldstandard.org/standards/101_V2.1_PAR_Principles-Requirements.pdf)

Last reviewed 2026-11-03. Read from version 2.1 (31 January 2025), which listed an update for 5 December 2025. Check for a newer version before relying on it.