Introduction

How to Access Certification Setup 

How to Complete Certification Setup in B Impact

What happens after Certification Setup?

Introduction

Setup is the experience in B Impact that sits between registering your company and working on your self‑assessment.

If you are pursuing certification, Certification Setup will guide you through a short, personalised questionnaire. By completing it, you provide core information about your company so that B Lab can:  

• Check whether you meet baseline eligibility for B Corp Certification (Foundation Requirements 1.1)

• Determine which legal entities and sites are to be included in your certification scope

• Identify which entities must meet the B Corp legal requirement

• Confirm your company’s track based on its size, sector, and market in order to generate a customized self-assessment

If you only want to measure impact and not certify, you can skip Certification Setup and follow the Impact Measurement journey instead (see FAQ).

How to Access Certification Setup 

Go to the B Impact homepage. Then click on "Start Now" in the "Get ready for the new standards!" section. You will then be redirected to the certification setup page.

You can also access Certification Setup by clicking on the “Interested in becoming a Certified B Corp?” section.

How to Complete Certification Setup in B Impact 

Certification Setup is organised into four sections that you can see on your Setup dashboard:

Section 1) Gather company documents:

Confirm that you have gathered or can access all documents needed to complete all Certification Setup sections, such as:

• Articles of incorporation, charter, business registration certificate, or corporate governance articles

• Organizational chart or ownership records

• Profit and loss statement or tax statement

• Human Resources (HR) records or employee roster

At this stage, you will not be asked to upload any documentation.

Section 2) Eligibility: Organization type

Use this section to determine if your company meets baseline eligibility criteria for B Corp Certification (FR1.1). 

You can expect to answer questions about: 

• Your company’s ownership type

• Whether your company has been operational for at least the last 12 months (see the article Operational Date Explained).

• Whether your company operates as a for-profit business in a competitive market.

You can expect the following outcomes:

• Preliminary eligibility for B Corp Certification met: Your company is eligible to continue to Section 3 of Certification Setup. 

• Ineligible for B Corp Certification: Your company can continue to Section 4 of Certification to use B Impact as a free tool to measure your impact.

Section 3) Scoping: Related entities

This section unlocks only if your company meets baseline eligibility criteria in Section 2.

Because B Corp Certification evaluates entire businesses rather than individual products or sites, scoping plays a critical role in making sure dynamic, complex business structures are assessed fairly and consistently.

You can expect to answer questions about: 

• Ownership: Select the ownership type of your company. This determines the sequence of questions regarding parent companies and owners.

• Parent companies and owners: If your company is not independently owned, determine whether any parent entity is required to be in scope and complete the B Corp legal requirement. Collect information about your company that includes the following, if applicable:

• The list of parent entities and their respective ownership percentage of your company

• The list of parent entities that are independently owned

• The list of parent entities that are non-operational holding entities

• The list of parent entities that have other majority-owned, consolidated, or controlled subsidiaries

• The list of individual persons and their respective percentage of ownership of your company

• Any shared branding or website between your company and its parent company 

• Any shared core functions between your company and its parent company (a “core function” is typically characterized as the executive team functions, workers, facilities, or supply chain)

• Any shared employees on payroll or revenues in the same country as the parent company

• Subsidiaries: Determine whether subsidiary entities are required to be in scope and complete the legal requirements. Include the following subsidiary types:

• Wholly-owned: a company whose common stock is 99-100% owned by your company.

• Majority-owned: a company whose common stock is 51% to 98% owned by your company.

• Joint venture: a company whose common stock is 50% owned by your company. 

• Controlled: a company over which your company has authority, either by controlling its leadership or by being directly involved in its day-to-day operations and decision-making, including the ability to direct or manage its business activities. This could show up as financial control (e.g., your company is financially consolidated with the entity) or managerial control (e.g., your company's executive team makes decisions over the entity).

• Other related entities: Identify if your company shares any other aspect of business with other entities, which may include operations, workers, executives, facilities, name, brand, or ownership.

• Executive authority: Confirm if your company’s executive team has decision-making authority over the Sustainability Management System of the entities listed, and is able to address any non-conformities related to their policies and practices (e.g., Human rights, Fair labor practices, Purpose-driven strategy and governance, Environmental management, and Climate action).

You can expect the following outcomes:

• No additional companies are in scope: Your certification scope summary confirms that only your company is in scope.

• Additional companies must be considered: Your certification scope summary lists the multiple entities that are determined to be in your company’s scope and/or required to complete the legal requirements.

• Manual review required: If your company’s structure is too complex for an automated decision, you will see that a manual review is required. You must click “Submit for review” so that a member of B Lab can review your company’s information and issue a tailored certification scope following B Lab’s scoping rules. 

For more details, see Understanding your Certification Scope in B Impact.

Section 4) Scoping: Customize your assessment

This section unlocks after Section 3 is complete, or when Section 3 does not apply (for example, if you do not meet baseline eligibility for certification but still want to generate a self-assessment for impact measurement purposes only).

Determine your certification track to generate a customized self-assessment based on your company’s size, sector, and market. 

For more details, see What to know about Scoping: Customizing your Assessment.

What happens after Certification Setup?

After completing all sections, you must click “Complete Section” for each section and then click “Submit Setup”. 

Once you submit your Certification Setup, a certification scope summary outlining your company’s scope and track is generated in the Scope tab, summarizing the results from Sections 3 and 4. 

You can either accept or reject the documented certification scope.

1. To accept the certification scope, no further action is needed and you can start working on your customized self-assessment in B Impact.

2. If the certification scope is inaccurate, you must go back to Section 3) Scoping: Related entities and update your company details for B Lab to review again. Otherwise, the company will not be able to proceed with certification, but can continue to use B Impact for self-assessment purposes.

For more details, see Understanding your Certification Scope in B Impact.