After you complete your Environmental, Social, and Governance (ESG) data collection and reporting for a year, you can work with your Workiva Customer Success Manager (CSM) to set up — or roll forward — your ESG Program for the next year's data.
Step 1. Collect data collection files
Note: For streamlined data collection, your metrics' assignees and approvers can use Workiva Tasks instead of connected source files. To collect all metric values through Workiva Tasks for the new reporting year, skip this step.
To collect values for ESG reporting, your ESG Program metrics may have connected source spreadsheets and documents, such as your Data Collection spreadsheet. During rollforward, Workiva creates copies of these source files to enable data collection for the new reporting year.
To prepare these source files for rollforward:
- From your ESG Program, identify all source files connected to your metric values.
Tip: From a metric, you can view its connected source file in Metric value.
- From Files, collect these files in a folder :
- Clearly name the folder with its files' context, such as
20XX Data collection. - Set the folder's permissions to ensure workspace members can manage its files.
- Clearly name the folder with its files' context, such as
Step 2. Collect reporting outputs
Your Workiva ESG solution includes a Factbook spreadsheet, which curates values from your ESG Program and acts as a source for reporting outputs. During rollforward, Workiva creates copies of these files to ensure accurate reporting for the new reporting year.
To help identify the reporting outputs:
- From Files, select the Factbook spreadsheet, and select Linked files report from its menu. The linked files report lists all destination links from the Factbook.
- For each of the Factbook spreadsheet's destination links, create a linked files report to identify their destination links. Then, create a linked files report again for each of those files' destination links, and so on, until you identify all linked reporting outputs.
After you identify all reporting outputs, collect them in a folder from Files:
- Clearly name the folder with its files' context, such as
20XX Reporting outputs. - Set the folder's permissions to ensure workspace members can manage its files.
Step 3. Set up the rollforward with Workiva
After you collect your data collection and reporting output files, contact your Workiva CSM to schedule a kickoff call for your rollforward. At the kickoff call, you'll:
- Review your ESG Program its metrics' data collection sources.
- Identify the Workiva Solution Architect (SA) who will perform for your rollforward.
- Schedule the timeline for your rollforward.
After Workiva performs the rollforward, your workspace will include:
- A new reporting year in your ESG Program, with the same topics and metrics as the current year
Tip: During rollforward, your ESG Program may also add previous reporting years' values. To verify these values, refer to your Historical Data Load spreadsheet created during implementation.
- Copies of the Data Collection spreadsheet and other source files, connected to the new reporting year's metrics
- A copy of the Factbook spreadsheet, linked to copies of its destination reporting outputs for the new year
- Updated queries connected to the new Data Collection and Factbook spreadsheets
Step 4. Prepare the new year's data collection
After the rollforward, you can prepare your ESG Program metrics to enable data collection for the new reporting year.
Update query parameters
The Data collection and Factbook spreadsheets both include incoming connections from queries to get data from your ESG Program. To update an incoming connection for the new year, select it on the spreadsheet's Connections panel, then select the new reporting year in Parameters.
Collect values through Workiva Tasks
For streamlined data collection, workspace members can prepare and approve a metric's values in Workiva Tasks instead of the Data Collection spreadsheet or other source file. To begin to collect a metric's value through Workiva Tasks for the new reporting year:
- From the metric, select the new reporting year.
- In Metric value, click Remove source to disconnect its value's source file.
When you send the metric's tasks for the new reporting year, they will direct the recipients to prepare and approve values through Workiva Tasks.
Apply frequency or dimensions
While you may have previously collected a single annual value for a metric, you can collect multiple values for a metric based on:
- Monthly or quarterly frequency
- Custom dimension, such as location, gender, or business unit
If you apply a frequency or dimension to a topic's metrics for the new reporting year, update the Factbook spreadsheet to ensure accurate formulas:
- Right-click the Blank template sheet, and select Duplicate from its menu.
- Rename the duplicate section to match the metrics' topic.
- Copy the metrics' IDs from their current section of the spreadsheet, and paste them into the Metric ID column of the duplicate section.
- If you apply a dimension to a metric, select it in the Dimension lookup column of the metric's row.
-
Create new source links from the metrics' values to their respective reporting outputs.
Edit metric assignments
By default, the new reporting year's metrics have the same assignments as the current year's, with their previous due dates advanced one year. To reassign a metric's value to another workspace member, such as to reflect personnel changes, edit its assignee or approver as necessary.
If you have 30 or more metrics to reassign as part of an annual rollforward, contact your Workiva CSM to help edit your assignments in bulk. Your CSM will provide a Structured Metric File (SMF) spreadsheet that contains data from your ESG Program, including its current metric assignments.
Note: The SMF provided will be a new file just for assignment updates following a rollforward — not the same SMF your company may have used to create an ESG Program.
From this SMF, edit the assignments as necessary for the new year:
- From the Bulk updates section, select the Approver/Provider Template Copy sheet for the assignments to update, based on frequency of their values — Quarterly, Monthly, or Yearly.
- In the Approver/Provider Template Copy sheet, edit the assignments' providers, assignee, due dates, and instructions as necessary.
Note: You can assign multiple members to approve a value, but only one as its provider.
- To assign only one member as a value's approver, enter their full name or email address.
- To assign one of multiple members to approve a value by a shared due date, enter their full names or email addresses as a comma-separated list, such as
homer@org.com,marge@org.com,bart@org.com,lisa@org.com. - To assign multiple members to approve a value through a series of approval steps with their own due dates, enter their full names or email addresses, with each step separated by a pipe (
|). If one of multiple members can approve the value as part of an approval step, separate their names or email addresses with a comma (,). For example:homer@org.com,marge@org.com | bart@org.com | lisa@org.com
- After you update the spreadsheet with all new assignments, contact your Workiva CSM to update your ESG Program based on your edits.