# Which parts of carbon and ESG compliance can be automated, and which still need people?

Canonical: https://senseible.earth/answers/which-carbon-compliance-tasks-can-be-automated

Software can reliably do the repetitive work: reading bills and invoices, converting units, classifying lines, applying published factors, recomputing totals, catching duplicates and filling report tables. People still have to set the boundary, decide what is material, judge estimates, engage suppliers, sign off the figures and provide independent assurance.

## Tasks that automate well

- Reading quantities, units, dates and tax codes from invoices, fuel slips and electricity bills.
- Converting units and flagging ones that cannot be converted, such as kVAh where kWh is needed.
- Classifying lines by HSN code into fuels, electricity and purchased goods.
- Multiplying activity by a published factor and recording the factor source.
- Recomputing every stored result and flagging lines with missing quantity, unit or factor.
- Detecting identical files uploaded twice.
- Filling draft framework tables from the records.

## Tasks that need a person

- Choosing the organisational boundary: operational control, financial control or equity share.
- Deciding which Scope 3 categories are relevant and which may be excluded, with reasons.
- Choosing estimates where data is missing, and approving them.
- Getting data from suppliers and judging its quality.
- Signing off the emissions statement. Under assurance standards such as ISAE 3410, that is management's responsibility.
- Independent assurance, which by definition comes from someone outside.
- Wording public claims, targets and transition plans.

## The work in between

Automation should hand people a short exception list, not a finished answer: lines with low reading confidence, abnormal quantities, units that do not match the product, or a missing factor. Reviewing those is where human time pays off.

## A test for any tool

1. Can you click any total and reach the source document?
2. Does every line show the factor, its source and version?
3. Does the tool leave a figure blank when it has no factor, rather than guessing?
4. Can a reviewer correct a line, with the change recorded?

## What Senseible does here

Senseible automates reading invoices and bills (AI model at temperature 0, fixed schema), HSN-first classification, factor application, recomputation and rule checks, and flags lines that fail. Boundary setting, materiality, supplier engagement and sign-off stay with you. Independent review comes from an outside auditor.

- [Can carbon accounting be fully automated?](https://senseible.earth/answers/can-carbon-accounting-be-fully-automated)
- [DIY or consultant for carbon accounting](https://senseible.earth/climate-intelligence/diy-vs-consultant-carbon-accounting-msme-decision-framework)
- [How Senseible calculates emissions](https://senseible.earth/answers/how-senseible-calculates-emissions)
- [ESG data management](https://senseible.earth/esg-data-management)

Sources: [GHG Protocol Corporate Accounting and Reporting Standard (revised edition)](https://ghgprotocol.org/corporate-standard), [GHG Protocol Corporate Value Chain (Scope 3) Standard](https://ghgprotocol.org/corporate-value-chain-scope-3-standard)

Last reviewed 2026-10-15.