If you handle SECR for a group with multiple subsidiaries and sites, you already know the disclosure itself is not the difficult part. It is a handful of figures and a short narrative in the directors’ report. The difficult part is pulling clean, consistent, consolidated data out of dozens of meters, entities, suppliers and fuel cards in time for the board to sign it off.
That is a software problem as much as a reporting one. And in 2026 the criteria for choosing that software have shifted.
What Changed and Why It Affects Your Choice
Three things are worth knowing before you sit through a demo.
- UK SRS S1 and S2 were published on 25 February 2026. These are the UK endorsed versions of IFRS S1 and S2, and S2 is proposed to become mandatory for in scope listed companies for financial years beginning 1 January 2027.
- SECR is not going away. The Department for Business and Trade confirmed in January 2026 that SECR and UK SRS continue as separate obligations with different policy objectives. SECR was never designed as a stepping stone to broader sustainability disclosure.
- ESOS Phase 4 is due by 5 December 2027, and it draws on the same energy data you are already collecting for SECR.
The practical implication is simple. Buying a tool that only produces a SECR disclosure is buying for 2019. What you actually need is one energy and emissions inventory that can feed SECR now, ESOS next year, and climate disclosure after that, without rebuilding your data from scratch each time.
1. Compliance Fit: Does It Produce a Report, or Just a Dashboard?
Plenty of platforms will give you an attractive chart of your emissions. Fewer will give you something your auditors and directors are comfortable putting their name to.
Check that the software delivers:
- Current DEFRA emission factors, updated annually, with the factor set used clearly recorded against each reporting year.
- Energy consumption in kWh by type, split correctly across electricity, gas and transport fuels.
- Scope 1 and 2 emissions, with Scope 3 available when you want to go further than the minimum.
- An intensity metric that suits your sector, not a generic default.
- The energy efficiency action narrative. SECR requires you to describe what you actually did in the period, with quantified savings where possible. This is where most tools go quiet.
- Prior year comparatives and a methodology statement, held in the system rather than in someone’s spreadsheet.
If a provider cannot show you a finished, signed off SECR disclosure during the demo, treat that as your answer.
2. Multi Entity Reporting: The Part That Breaks Most Tools
If a report used an outdated emission factor, the resulting figures would not reflect current best practice, and could be challenged under audit. Since factors update automatically within the platform rather than depending on someone remembering to check a spreadsheet, your reports are calculated against whatever is current at the time of submission.
Automatic updates handle the routine cases. Where a factor change is ambiguous, or where a specific activity does not map clearly to an existing factor, an in-house carbon consultant reviews it manually before it is applied to your data.
3. Data Integration: How Much Of The Work Is Still Yours?
The honest measure of a carbon accounting platform is how little manual effort year two takes.
Look for direct handling of half hourly data, supplier invoices, AMR feeds, sub metering, gas, fleet cards, business mileage claims and exports from your finance or ERP system. Then ask the question providers rarely volunteer: who does the first year data load? Some platforms hand you a blank system and an onboarding guide. Others do the heavy lifting for you.
Ask too how gaps and estimates are handled. Every group has a site with missing meter reads. What matters is whether the estimation method is documented and defensible, or invented at the last minute.
4. If You Are a Manufacturer, Add Four More Questions
Manufacturing brings complexity that generic software tends to ignore.
- Can intensity be expressed per unit of production, not just per pound of turnover?
- Are process emissions and refrigerant losses handled properly, rather than lumped into a catch all?
- Does it cope with multi shift and seasonal energy patterns across production lines?
- Can it move from site level to product level? Customers and tenders are increasingly asking for product carbon footprints, EPDs and TM65 assessments. If your SECR data cannot feed those, you will be buying a second system within eighteen months.
5. Support: A Named Consultant Or A Ticket Queue?
Software alone does not produce compliant reports. People do. When you are three weeks from filing and a subsidiary’s gas data has not arrived, you need someone who already understands your group structure.
Two questions cut through most sales pitches. Are the consultants in house or subcontracted? And is expert support included, or billed by the day once onboarding ends?
Take This List To Your Next Demo
- Show me a completed SECR disclosure produced by this platform.
- How do you consolidate a group and produce subsidiary level reports?
- What happens to my comparatives when we acquire or sell a business?
- Which of my data sources connect directly, and which stay manual?
- Who loads year one, and how long does it take?
- Can this same data feed ESOS Phase 4 and climate disclosure?
- Who is my named contact, and what does support cost after onboarding?
Why Enistic
We have been doing this since 2002, through every phase of ESOS and every year of SECR, with an AI enabled platform we build and maintain in house. That last point matters more than it sounds: when the rules move, we change the platform rather than waiting for a third party roadmap.
- 5,000+ compliant reports delivered.
- 100% compliance record, with no failures.
- 11.7% audit rate, against an industry average of 33%.
- 98% client renewal rate.
Our consultants, carbon experts and ESOS Lead Assessors are all in house, and one of them is named to your account. They learn how your group is structured and they stay with you. Not a helpdesk, and not a different person each time you call. It is all covered by one simple monthly payment, with unlimited expert support and no day rates appearing halfway through the year.
Choosing well now means SECR stops being an annual scramble and becomes the foundation for everything else coming down the line.
Book a demo and we will walk you through a real group SECR report, using your structure, not a sample company.