How to Prepare Your Carbon Credit Portfolio for a Financial Audit: A Complete Guide
— Audit
A step-by-step guide for CFOs and controllers on what external auditors test when reviewing voluntary carbon credit holdings — and how to build an audit-ready evidence pack before the engagement begins.
What External Auditors Actually Test
When an external auditor reviews your voluntary carbon credit holdings, they are looking for three things: existence (do the credits actually exist in the registry?), completeness (are all holdings and retirements recorded?), and accuracy (do the numbers match the registry statements?).
Building an Audit-Ready Evidence Pack
An audit-ready evidence pack contains: a complete credit lot inventory with serial numbers, vintage years, and registry names; retirement certificates for every retired credit; a reconciliation showing the difference between your internal ledger and the registry account balance; and supporting documents such as purchase agreements and transfer confirmations.
Common Audit Findings
The most common findings in carbon credit audits are: missing serial numbers, retirement records without timestamped climate claim statements, and ledger balances that do not reconcile to registry statements. Lennexus addresses all three by generating evidence packs that include all required fields automatically.