Raffles Consulting Services
Test a Sustainability Reporting Grant consultant quotation against the first ISSB-based report, eligible work, training, evidence and claim boundary.
A Sustainability Reporting Grant consultant quotation should be built around the applicant’s first ISSB-based sustainability report. The current grant supports eligible reporting, assurance and related capability-building costs for one report, subject to the published conditions. A broad ESG transformation proposal may contain useful work, but management still needs to separate the supported reporting scope from strategy, implementation and future reporting periods.
Fix the Sustainability Reporting Grant consultant outcome
State the applicant, reporting financial year, included entities, first-report conclusion and mandatory-compliance timeline. Use the current Sustainability Reporting Grant page and the official SRG FAQ to identify the report boundary, eligible provider requirements and application timing. Do not sign or pay before the permitted point.
Describe the expected report using the climate provisions of IFRS S1 and IFRS S2 where applicable to the grant route. Identify management decisions and data owners. The consultant can advise and prepare work, but the company remains responsible for its disclosures and evidence.
Break the quotation into reviewable work
Separate gap assessment, reporting boundary, governance, data collection, calculations, controls, drafting, management review, training and project management. Identify optional strategy, software, implementation, carbon projects, additional reports and future periods. Require milestones and accepted deliverables for every fee line.
Check named personnel, experience, methodology, assumptions, exclusions, subcontractors and handover. Where assurance or pre-assurance is included, separate its provider, standard, subject matter, period and fee. Do not describe readiness work as a final assurance conclusion.
Connect scope to evidence and claim closeout
Map each deliverable to a company owner, source data, review evidence and final-report section. Include training attendance and demonstrated capability where claimed. Record changes to group, period, metrics or publication plan and assess their effect before accepting varied work.
At closeout, reconcile the Letter of Offer, contract, invoice, full payment, training evidence, external grant audit and submitted first report. Exclude unsupported follow-on work. Preserve the public report boundary and do not make claims beyond the evidence or assurance obtained.
Turn the decision into a controlled file
Use a dated decision record that identifies the applicant, business need, current official source, chosen route, responsible owner, costs, milestones and evidence. Separate facts already verified from forecasts and assumptions. A catalogue listing, supplier statement, consultant recommendation or portal acknowledgement does not establish approval. The company remains responsible for its declarations and commercial decision.
Give each quotation, contract, invoice, payment and deliverable a stable reference. Preserve earlier versions and explain material changes instead of silently replacing them. Where the authority, tax adviser, auditor or another professional must decide a point, record the open question and obtain the required view. Do not convert uncertainty into a confident eligibility statement.
Review before commitment and again before closeout
Run four reviews: suitability, authority, implementation and closeout. At suitability, test the entity, activity and business outcome. Before commitment, freeze the proposed scope, vendor and financial assumptions. During implementation, compare actual work with approved terms. At closeout, reconcile deliverables, accepted results, invoices, full payment, operating evidence and obligations that continue.
Name the person who may approve each stage and the records that person must see. Procurement should not treat a draft application as permission to contract. A project team should not treat supplier completion as company acceptance. Finance should not treat a submitted claim as cash received. Clear status words prevent accidental commitments and weak reporting.
Handle exceptions without rewriting history
Maintain an exception log for changed facts, delayed milestones, supplier variations, cost movements, missing records and failed tests. State the effect on scope, eligibility, timing and expected value. If an authority decision or formal variation is required, use the published route before relying on the change. Silence and helpdesk receipt are not approval.
If a material defect appears, pause the affected acceptance, filing or claim item. Keep original evidence, assign corrective action and set a review date. Do not backdate records, move costs between categories or adjust a baseline after seeing the result. A candid exception with an owned resolution is more credible than a clean-looking file that cannot explain what happened.
Plan handovers before the original project team disperses. The handover should identify the current version, source locations, system access owner, next review date, open exceptions and any condition that continues after payment or filing. Restrict personal, financial and commercially sensitive records to authorised users, while giving each responsible owner enough information to perform the assigned control. Record the external event that should trigger an earlier review, such as a changed programme page, revised authority letter, supplier failure or material business change.
Verify the final outcome independently
Ask someone who did not prepare the final pack to compare the decision, current official source, approved terms, deliverables, payments and operating evidence. Recalculate totals and sample source records. The reviewer should be able to reproduce the conclusion without relying on the preparer’s memory. Record unresolved points with named owners and dates.
Use the SRG assurance-scope guide for the wider decision and keep this article as the narrower operating guide. After submission, preserve the receipt and reconcile questions, adjustments and the final registered or paid outcome. Continue any reporting, retention, asset-use or other condition that survives closeout.
Practical review checklist
- First report fixed
- Fee lines separated
- Provider and team checked
- Deliverables mapped to evidence
- Claim boundary reconciled
A Sustainability Reporting Grant consultant scope is ready when every fee line contributes to the approved first ISSB-based report, responsibilities and evidence are clear, and unsupported strategy or future-period work is separated.