Getting a first year right.

Pick one reporting period you already have invoices for, usually the last full financial year. A published year becomes your comparison point.

Set up the sites that consumed fuel or electricity, then invite the people who will review evidence. Field workers can be added later without affecting your plan's user count.

Import meter, fuel card and supplier spend exports first. Add field capture once the office data is in, so reviewers are not learning two things at once.

Run a calculation, read the warnings, then publish. Generate a report from the snapshot and check it against your own records.

Keep the document that shows the quantity: a fuel card statement, a meter reading, a weighbridge ticket, a delivery note. Invoices that only show cost support spend-based figures.

Attach evidence to the submission or record rather than a shared drive, so the auditor can open it from the figure.

When a value is estimated, write the assumption on the record. The CSV trail carries it into the report appendix.

Check your retention setting under Settings, then Data retention. UK company records are normally kept for six years.

Location-based uses the grid average for where the electricity was used. MetricOra always reports it, and it is the headline figure.

Market-based reflects what you bought. Add REGOs, PPAs, green tariffs or supplier-specific rates under Settings, then Electricity contracts, for the sites and dates they cover.

Anything not covered by a contract falls back to the residual mix or the library factor, and the calculation says so.

SECR asks for location-based. Reporting market-based beside it shows the effect of your purchasing.