The questions asked before an engagement.

Is this a report, or a set of books?

Books. A report is a document written once a year; books are kept continuously, balance, and every figure in them traces to a source record. Reports come out of the books, in whatever format the reader wants. Most impact reports are compiled once and not kept; books are continuous.

Who is this for?

Organizations whose impact figures have consequences: a funder renewal, a rate case, an accreditation, an LP report, a pay decision. Funders and investors who need one set of books across everything they fund. Companies whose filings carry those figures. Nonprofits, lenders, and clinics who prove outcomes to more than one funder. See who Sedoha serves.

Are we too small?

Size matters less than whether someone acts on your figures. If you report outcomes to a funder, a board, or a regulator who decides something with them, you are not too small. If the figures only go into a report nobody uses, the books will do less for you than they should.

What do we need to have before we start?

Four things: someone who acts on your figures; your evidence in any form, clean or not; one person on your team who owns the numbers; and permission to share the records the books need, under NDA. Nothing else. You review the books with Sedoha at close; nobody on your team has to learn a new system. The full list is on Work with Us.

How long until we have books?

The first set of statements comes after a study of the organization and a build of the books. How long that takes depends on how many entities and data sources are involved; the first call gives you an estimate. After the first close, the books are kept on a regular cycle. The steps are on Work with Us.

Who does the accounting, the software or people?

Both, with a clear line between them. The software classifies, reconciles, drafts, and cross-checks; that is why it can keep books at a scale a team can’t match by hand. Sedoha’s accountants and impact professionals make every methodology decision and every material judgment, and each one is recorded so it is applied the same way next time. You review the books at close.

Are the books audited?

Not by Sedoha. Audit-ready means the books are kept in a state an auditor can examine: every figure traces to its source, every judgment is documented, every gap is labeled. Audited means an independent, licensed firm has examined them and issued an opinion. Sedoha builds the first; only an outside auditor can grant the second. For monetized impact, the level of assurance available in the field today is limited assurance, an outside auditor’s check that nothing came to their attention. The standard says exactly this, and says what is still maturing.

Who owns the data and the books?

You do. Your records, your chart of accounts, your valuations, your books, and any method developed for you. Your books live in their own database, separate from every other client’s, and access is by named invitation. What Sedoha keeps is what the work teaches, stripped of your name and figures, and you can opt out of even that. Full terms are on Work with Us.

Our funder wants their own template. Our auditor wants theirs.

Both come from the same books. A template is a report format; the books underneath do not change. GRI, SASB, ESRS, SDG, a board pack, a funder’s spreadsheet: each is a view of the same entries. A new ask is a new report, not a new data collection.

What if there is no published price for an outcome we care about?

Then it does not get a made-up one. Where a published value factor exists, a published price for an outcome such as what a workplace injury costs society, it is used and cited. Where none exists, the outcome is disclosed on the books as a labeled gap, in its own units, and you see exactly what is and is not valued. If your engagement needs a method nobody has published, it is developed with you; it lives on your books marked as yours, and it stays yours unless you choose to offer it to the standard.

What if our numbers look bad?

Then the books say so, with the trail behind them. A figure that is worse than you hoped but traces to its source is more defensible to a funder or an auditor than a good figure nobody can check. The books also show what is not valued yet, as a labeled gap rather than a silent omission. And a bad number on a kept set of books is a starting point: the last thing an engagement does is set goals on the accounts and find out which strategies move them.

Does this replace our financial accounting?

No. Your financial books, your fund accounting, your ERP stay where they are. Sedoha keeps the impact books alongside them, on the same double-entryEvery value is recorded twice, once as where it came from and once as where it went, so the books check themselves. discipline, and reads from your existing records rather than replacing them.

Do you have clients?

Sedoha does not name clients until an engagement is proven and the client agrees. What can be shown today is a published standard anyone can read, working software, and two full demonstration sets of books: one built on synthetic data and labeled as such throughout, one built entirely from a global manufacturer’s published reports. Ask for a walkthrough of either.

Can we see it working before we commit?

Yes. The walkthrough uses the demonstration books, so you see real statements, real entries, and the trail behind a figure before you decide anything. There is nothing to prepare.