Cloud accounting service FinancialForce.com has partnered with Web-based carbon management specialist CloudApps to help the growing number of businesses beyond the manufacturing sector that are being asked to account for their carbon emissions.

Jeremy Roche

Known as CloudApps Carbon, the application was developed on Force.com — Salesforce.com’s cloud computing platform — to provide an end-to-end carbon management and accounting system. Companies can use the software to measure, monitor and account for their current carbon emissions and engage with their employees to reduce future emission levels and operational costs.

CloudApps Carbon, integrated with FinancialForce.com Accounting, enables customers to measure their carbon emissions and produce compliance reports. They can benchmark their carbon footprint against other companies, engage employees to identify and manage carbon reduction programs, and smooth cash flow by forecasting future carbon allowance requirements. In addition, the software enables them to share their work with other stakeholders to further promote their brand and green credentials.

FinancialForce.com takes the information on carbon emissions from the CloudApps Carbon application and converts it into accounting transaction data so the carbon can be monitored and reported as an asset in its own right.

“Carbon accounting is becoming increasingly important, and if you are a public company, you are required to have a statement on your carbon plan in your annual report,” said FinancialForce.com chief executive Jeremy Roche. “We did some research and looked at managing carbon as an asset, and from an accounting perspective, we feel we have the right solution. The governments have programs in place where they will start to ask [more] organizations to manage their emissions, and not just the smoke-belching factories. As organizations understand the need to manage this, they will see the benefits of this [service], as most current ERP systems don’t have this kind of tracking.”

SAP’s ERP system, for example, can do carbon accounting. However, Roche claims that CloudApps Carbon can be deployed “in days rather than months, and at a far lower cost.”
Roche said the relationship with CloudApps emerged from their shared connection to Salesforce.com, in that they both use the same platform. He explained that the two started conversations about how they could work together, mapped out a plan, and built the solution.

For more information, visit www.financialforce.com or www.cloudapps.com.