Sedoha rests on two things: a chart of accounts that puts financial and impact performance on one set of books, and a continuous-improvement cycle that learns which strategies move the numbers.
Money has had books for five hundred years; the other five capitals mostly haven’t. Impact accounting is the young field fixing that — it prices outcomes and books them like money.
Where the emerging field of impact accounting stands today: what impact is worth, what companies disclose, who is already keeping impact accounts in practice, and what is still missing. About Impact Accounting →
Six capitals, financial and impact alike, on one set of double-entryEvery value is recorded twice, once as where it came from and once as where it went, so the books check themselves. books, so performance is measured in full and stays comparable across organizations. The same structure an accountant already recognizes, extended to everything an organization creates or destroys.
Study, Do, Observe, Hone: the method that turns measurement into improvement. Each initiative runs its own loop and learns, from the evidence on the books, which strategies are working.
Every outcome is booked against one of six capitals. The model is the established integrated-reporting one, from the International Integrated Reporting Council (IIRC) framework and the Capitals Coalition Protocol, not one we invented. Each capital carries the same five account types as financial accounting.
Stocks of natural resources such as forests, fisheries, soil, and the atmosphere, and the ecosystem services they provide, from clean water to climate stability.
The knowledge, skills, health, and capacity that exist inside individual people, embodied in the person and lost when they leave.
The relationships, networks, trust, and shared norms between people, the connective tissue that makes coordinated action possible.
Knowledge-based intangibles independent of any single person: patents, brand, software, and documented processes that survive turnover.
Physical objects produced by people: buildings, machinery, equipment, and infrastructure. The durable stuff that enables production.
Money and money-equivalents: cash, securities, debt, and equity. A store of value that produces outcomes only when converted into another capital.
Six capitals × the five account types, Asset, Liability, Equity, Revenue, and Expense, make thirty categories. The books balance per capital, and one economic result is counted once across the whole chain, so impact aggregates up a portfolio without inflating.
Measurement is only the start. Each initiative runs its own loop: set it going, record what happens on the books, check whether the numbers moved, and choose the next move from the evidence.
Study
Understand the situation and what might work.
Do
Act, and record what happened on the books.
Observe
Check whether the numbers moved.
Hone
Learn from the evidence and choose the next move.
The standard
A living, revised standard: audit-ready, built on published and citable methodologies, with its maturity stated openly. It sets out how each outcome is classified, when a figure is priced versus disclosed, and how impact consolidates up a reporting chain without double-counting.
Read the standardSee what this looks like on your books, for investors & funders, companies & institutions, or nonprofits & social enterprises.
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