‘Common goal’: Tasmanian carbon accounting startup Sumday forges partnership with Xero

Tasmanian startup Sumday has forged a global partnership with business management platform Xero to bring carbon accounting software and education to more businesses and advisors around the world.

The Australian startup will focus on Australia, New Zealand, the US and the UK, with a goal to make carbon accounting an extension of financial accounting and reporting for businesses on a global scale.

Sumday was founded by Jessica Richmond, Lindsay Ellis and Danny Hoare. The team started as an accounting firm in Tasmania, providing carbon accounting as a service to its clients across heavy industries including mining, through to small businesses.

However, CEO and co-founder Jessica Richmond says the Sumday team was unable to find software that could meet the needs of accountants and enable the startup to maintain the primary relationship with its clients. 

“We didn’t want to refer our clients to a software platform that provided a dashboard, where we couldn’t explain exactly how they reached those numbers,” she tells SmartCompany. 

“Therefore, we decided to hire a software developer and build it ourselves. We soon realised that our impact would be far greater if we turned an internal non-financial accounting product into software any advisor or business could use. 

“We wanted to turn our deep practical experience into educational resources others could learn from as well, which has since become the Sumday Academy. 

The trio were well aware of the compliance requirements that would soon face all SMEs, says Richmond. 

“We felt strongly about equal access to support and firmly believed their existing accountants and advisors would be the answer, they just needed training, software and support. 

“That has certainly turned out to be the case so far.”

Making carbon accounting ‘affordable, accessible, accurate’

Richmond says Sumday is thrilled to be partnering with Xero.

“We share a common goal to support advisors and businesses around the world with this new era of accounting, ensuring no business is left behind or locked out of supply chains, simply because they haven’t been able to access support,” she says.  

“We hope to make carbon accounting affordable, accessible and increasingly accurate for all businesses. By leading with an education-first approach, we are hoping to up-skill advisors around the world so they are confident in what is required to deliver this high-impact support to their clients or within their organisations.

Richmond describes the partnership as being “consumer-driven” and carbon accounting will soon be part of “business as usual” for SMEs and their advisors. 

“Many of our customers kept saying ‘you should be working with Xero’, and wanted the integration. We also spoke at Xerocon over a year ago before we were even Sumday and there was strong interest in what we were doing then,” she says. 

“After overwhelmingly positive feedback from Xerocon last month, we knew it made total sense to move forward with a global partnership.”

Richmond says the Xero partnership means that businesses and advisors both in Australia and across the world will be supported with training, software and support in a world of accounting that is rapidly evolving to include non-financial metrics.

“We know carbon accounting can become an extension of financial accounting and reporting, and we believe it is one of the most affordable and credible ways to make this work part of business as usual,” she says.  

“By ensuring our accounting platforms integrate and providing tangible support to advisors, we can streamline the process and make carbon accounting more accessible than it has been before.”

Transparency is key

Sumday is already working with finance teams within large organisations and small suburban accounting firms, through to mid-market and big four offices around the world.

Richmond believes it’s not possible to reach net zero or set credible targets if businesses are not accounting for their carbon impact in the first place. 

“A more sustainable future is supported by every consumer and business making informed decisions based on carbon impact, which naturally drives markets to decarbonise at pace,” she says. 

“For example, every time we buy or invest, we need to be thinking about carbon alongside price or financial returns. 

“That only happens when we trust the non-financial numbers too, so they need to be transparent and robust.”

Education in the space has been the biggest barrier, says Richmond, who says many businesses are feeling worried or “totally lost” when it comes to carbon accounting. 

 “If we can up-skill the existing professionals we trust with normal accounting, suddenly businesses can simply turn to their existing accountant, finance team or advisor to make carbon an extension of their existing financial accounting and reporting,” she says. 

“In that world, it becomes common practice to share the primary data consumers and other stakeholders need to make decisions with carbon front of mind.”

Xero’s director of sustainability and ESG, Tamara Somers, said the company is excited about the opportunity for accountants and bookkeepers to help small businesses keep up with the increasing demands in sustainability reporting. 

“With new, mandatory reporting standards requiring large companies to report on emissions from their supply chains, it’s important that small businesses are not left behind,” she told SmartCompany. 

“Sumday allows advisors to harness the data in the Xero platform to provide audit-quality carbon accounts.”