New Feature for VSME Reporting: Audit Trail Improves Internal and External Traceability

We continuously develop Aila by listening to the needs of users and stakeholders. We release improvements almost weekly - from small usability enhancements to larger updates.

Recently, we introduced a significant new feature to Aila’s VSME reporting: comments and additional notes. This feature has been widely praised by both report preparers and stakeholders who use the information.

You can now add comments directly alongside the questions. Comments are categorized into three types: notes, audit, and public. This improves data traceability both internally and externally. When printing the report or saving it as an Excel file, you can choose which comment types to include.

Examples of how the comment types can be used:

Notes: Internal background information, e.g., which internal systems the data was compiled from, where working documents are stored (such as carbon calculation data and tables).

Audit: Information for key stakeholders like funders or auditors, detailing the origin of report data, assumptions and limitations made, or calculation factors used. These comments are especially intended as an audit trail to ensure data traceability.

Public: Public additional information that can be published along with the report, e.g., on the company’s website.

Improved Preview and Excel Export

Alongside the commenting feature, we also updated the report’s preview view and Excel file. With the options at the top of the report, you can now choose which comments to include in the printout or file. This allows you to easily create different Excel versions of the same report - for example, one to share with funders and another to publish on your website.