Update DMA templates for simplified European Sustainability Reporting Standards

This article is for:

Sustainability Reporting workspaces with the CSRD add-on implemented with double-materiality assessment (DMA) templates for the ESRS Delegated Act of 2023

To help clarify and simplify the European Sustainability Reporting Standards (ESRS), the European Financial Reporting Advisory Group (EFRAG) drafted a simplified version of the Standards, with updated topics and disclosure requirements (DRs) that differ from the ESRS Delegated Act of 2023.

If your workspace includes the Corporate Sustainability Reporting Directive (CSRD) add-on and double-materiality assessment (DMA) templates implemented for the Delegated Act, you can use Spreadsheet templates — available from Workiva — to update your DMA templates with the new topics and DRs of the simplified ESRS.

Note: To enable a proactive preparation, these templates includes the draft simplified ESRS published as Technical Advice by EFRAG, which may differ from the finalized Standards approved by the European Commission (EC).

Note: Use these Spreadsheet templates to update DMA templates in Assessments for the simplified ESRS. To update Sustainability Program for the simplified ESRS, use the ESRS Transition Accelerator instead.

Step 1. Request your template

To start, choose whether to import the new topics of the simplified ESRS or update your DMA templates' current topics based on the new topics, then request the applicable Spreadsheet template from your Workiva Customer Success Manager (CSM):

Import — To start fresh for the simplified ESRS and not retain your DMA templates' current topics, request the Simplified DMA topics and DRs bulk import Spreadsheet to import the new topics and DRs.
Update — If you previously used the DMA templates for the Delegated Act and want to retain their current topics, request the Simplified DMA topics and DR update accelerator Spreadsheet to decide how your current topics map to the new topics.

Note: You may choose to not update your DMA templates for the draft simplified ESRS, and instead continue to use your current topics. For more details, consult your advisory partner.

Tip: Workiva will also implement a new Disclosure requirements bulk import report to enable the import of the new topics' disclosure requirements.

Step 2. Import or update topics

From either Simplified DMA topics and DRs template, you can review the topics and subtopics of both the ESRS Delegated Act and the draft simplified ESRS, and how they map from one to the other.

To update your DMA templates with the new topics, import or update them from your template.

Note: To create or adjust impacts, risks, and opportunities (IROs) for your DMA templates based on new or updated topics, consult your advisory partner.

Bulk import
Update accelerator

To start fresh with new DMA templates for the simplified ESRS, import the new topics from the Simplified DMA topics and DRs bulk import Spreadsheet.

Note: To successfully import the new topics, import the parent topics before their child topics.

From the Update tools section, select 2025 topic import sheet (parent topics), then copy all rows below the headers.
From Reports, open the [Import][Validation] Topic data import report in 0. Data management.
Right-click Report data and select Import.
Paste the rows copied from the 2025 topic import (parent topics) sheet, then click Create.
From the Simplified DMA topics and DRs bulk import Spreadsheet, select 2025 topic import sheet (child topics) in the Update tools section, then copy all rows below the headers.
From the [Import][Validation] Topic data import report in Reports, right-click Report data and select Import, then paste the rows copied from the 2025 topic import (child topics) sheet and click Create.

To retain your DMA templates' current topics, decide how to update them for the simplified ESRS from the Simplified DMA topics and DRs update accelerator Spreadsheet.

From the Connections panel, refresh the Current DMA and IRO library incoming connection.
From the Current DMA and IRO library sheet, verify all rows of the Trimmed topic name column includes a formula.

Tip: To update new rows with the formula, select the row above it that has the formula, then hover over the lower right corner of the Trimmed topic name column until the cursor becomes a plus sign , and drag it into the new rows.
From Action sheet in the Update your workspace section, review how the topics and sub-topics of the Delegated Act map to the topics of the simplified ESRS.
In Your current topic name, select the name currently used in your DMA templates for each topic of the Delegated Act.

Tip: When you select the current topic's name, you can view its associated IROs as verification.

Note: For any topic not used in your DMA templates, leave Your current topic name blank.

In Decision, specify how to adjust each topic and its DRs in DMAs for the simplified ESRS.

Adjustment	What would you like to do?	Adjusted topic name
Keep topic the same	Retain - No change	Verify the current topic name.
Update topic name	Rename	Enter the new topic name.
Map a child topic's DRs to its parent	Leverage parent topic	Enter the parent topic's name. Note: You can select this for child topics only.
Map the topic's DR to a new topic	Add new topic	Enter the new topic's name.
Map the topic's DRs to another topic	Merge into alternate topic	Enter the name of the topic to map its DRs to. Note: This only merges the topics' DRs — not their DMA scores.

Update your topics in Reports as necessary:
- If you Rename a topic, open the [Import][Validation] Topic data import report in 0. Data management, then select Report data and edit its name to match the Adjusted topic name of Action sheet.
- If you Leverage parent topic, Add new topic, or Merge into alternate topic, consult your partner to update Reports based on your adjusted topics.

Step 3. Import disclosure requirements

From either template, you can review the DRs of both the ESRS Delegated Act and the draft simplified ESRS.

To update the DMA templates with the DRs of the topics of the draft simplified ESRS, import the DR records into the new Disclosure requirements bulk import report:

Select the DRs to import:
- If using the Bulk import template, select 2025 DR import sheet in the Update tools section.
- If using the Update accelerator, select the DR bulk import report sheet in the Update your workspace section, then refresh its incoming connection from the Connections panel.
From the selected sheet, copy all rows below the headers.
From Reports, open the Disclosure requirement bulk import report, then right-click Report data and select Import.
Paste the rows copied from the sheet, then click Create.

Step 4. Update Sustainability Program

To update the metrics in Sustainability Program based on the simplified ESRS:

From Assessments, use the updated DMA templates to assess the materiality of the new topics and their IROs. To learn more, view Assess double-materiality of ESRS for CSRD-ready reporting.
Update Sustainability Program as necessary:
- If your metrics align with the Delegated Act, use the ESRS Transition Accelerator Spreadsheet — available in Workiva Marketplace.
- Otherwise, use the Gap Assessment Spreadsheet to create metrics for the simplified ESRS based on your DMA results.

To learn more, view Prepare Corporate Sustainability Reporting Directive-ready reporting.

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