What to know about Scoping: Customizing your Assessment

 The B Impact Assessment is tailored to the size, sector/industry and location of your company which is true during the reporting period the company indicates. The Certification setup page requires the company user to complete Section 3 Scoping: Related entities before customizing their assessment. For companies who have not selected certification interest, the scoping section will not be required.

This article will explain the process of completing the questionnaire that results in the company’s assessment track details. 

Understanding the fiscal year information

The assessment questions refer to the fiscal year for reporting purposes and thus companies can select the most recently completed fiscal year to indicate outcomes for the questions.  Your company's revenue is based on the fiscal year, a 12-month accounting period that is used for financial and tax reporting purposes. This date will be used for all financial questions in the assessment. Companies will also have to select a reporting period, which is used for questions referring to when the value of the company's workers was calculated. 

To learn more about fiscal year information check out our guides on What Time Period To Use When Completing the B Impact Assessment.

If you are in the setup experience, this is editable in the Scoping: Customize your assessment section.

Understanding the Business Size

Size is determined by Full-Time Equivalency (FTE), a measure of the work done by your entire workforce as if they were all full-time employees. This standardized approach allows for a fair comparison across different types of workers, ensuring equitable consideration for each one. The calculation is based on the following type of workers, if the company has them: 
Full time workers

Part time workers

Temporary workers

Independent Contractors who are employed for at least 6 months*

Definitions are provided for each worker category when you work on the scoping section for customizing your assessment. If you are in the setup experience, this is editable in the Scoping: Customize your assessment section.

Companies must ensure that the workers in question are properly reported for each corresponding group, so that the assessment set up experience can calculate the correct full time equivalency value.

 To learn more about calculating the size of your workforce on a FTE basis, see  Calculating Your Full-time Equivalency (FTE) Workforce.

Some things to consider:

*If the company has individual independent contractors who work greater than 6 months for the company, they would be considered part of the employee count, either as part time (20-34 hours a week) or full time (35 hours or more a week).

If your company’s workers consist only of founders or partners who own 10%+ of your company, then your company’s track size should be “0.” This means there needs to be 1 FTE on payroll beyond the working owners/founders to move from the 0 to 1-9 track. The 0 worker track does not include a Worker section of the B Impact Assessment because your company has no additional workers, and instead the Assessment focuses on other aspects of your company’s operations and impact.    

Determining the Market

The location of the company will determine to which market the company’s operations belong. This is a crucial part of the assessment track as it selects the questions best suited for your company’s location and operations. To determine the market, simply put the company’s country of operations. The country of operations is based on the location of the majority of your company's workers. If your company has workers across multiple countries, please use the country with the largest number of employees.

If the company has a virtual office and there are no locations with a majority of employees, please include the country of incorporation and continue filling out the assessment.

Selecting the Sector

There are five different sectors that can be applicable to your company. This will be determined through a series of questions in the Scoping: Customize your assessment section. The questions are dynamic, which means more questions can show up depending on responses. On average, there will be six to eight questions in this section. 

Here is an overview of the sector results per the questions in the section:

• Manufacturing: A company that manufactures >10% of its own products for sale or manufactures products for sale by another company or brand. (e.g. contract manufacturers, assembly lines, breweries, livestock producers).

• Wholesale/Retail: A company that sells physical products and does not own or operate the manufacturing processes or facilities responsible for the creation of those physical goods. (e.g. grocery stores, e-commerce retailers, consumer goods companies that do not manufacture their own product, wholesalers of physical goods).

• Services with Minor Environmental Footprint: A company that earns 90% or more of their  revenue through the provision of non-physical services. Company does not sell a physical product or does not own/operate a retail, wholesale, or manufacturing facility. (e.g. law firms, marketing/communications agencies, software company).

• Services with Significant Environmental footprint: A company that earns 90% or more of their  revenue through the service industry with a significant environmental footprint due to its facilities, supply chain, or the intensity of its operations in delivery of services. (e.g. hotels, restaurants, landscaping companies, universities).

• Agriculture/Growers: A company that operates a farm, agro-processing facility, or sources crops directly from farmer-growers for a majority of raw input materials. If your company is a livestock producer, please select 'Manufacturing'. (e.g. fruit or vegetable farms, farmers' markets, coffee plantations, coffee roasters).

For specificity of the company’s industry, this was indicated at the time of registration, when creating the account and often this does not affect the specific questions you will see in the assessment.