CBAM ComplianceYour complete guide to the CBAM platform
This guide walks you through every screen of the app, using the built-in demo data, so anyone can go from a blank start to a submitted EU CBAM declaration with confidence. One golden rule runs through the whole product: every emissions and cost number comes only from the calculation engine - never from AI or a guess - so what you see on screen is exactly what gets exported in your official XML.
Welcome
CBAM (the EU Carbon Border Adjustment Mechanism) puts a carbon price on the emissions embedded in goods you import into the EU - iron & steel, aluminium, cement, fertilizers, hydrogen and electricity. This platform helps you measure those embedded emissions accurately, plan the cost, and file the official declaration. You never do the maths by hand.
The 5-minute workflow
The whole product follows one simple path. Everything else is detail.
- Model your plant in the Balance Twin - pick your sector & production route from a template, then fill the highlighted (amber) fields.
- Calculate - the Calculator returns engine-certified embedded emissions, liability in EUR, and the certificates required.
- Plan ahead - Forecasting projects your cost across the phase-in years and compares price scenarios.
- Track certificates & deadlines - Certificates and the Compliance calendar show what to hold, surrender and file, and when.
- Declare - Reports exports the official EU-schema XML to upload to the CBAM Registry.
1 - Balance Twin: model your plant
The Balance Twin turns your plant into a live diagram: the inputs (precursors, fuels, electricity), your production steps, and the finished CBAM good. Pick a ready-made template for your sector and route and the structure is already wired correctly - you supply the quantities, and the engine computes your CBAM number (SEE) as you go.
The cockpit - your default screen
Opening a plant lands you in the cockpit: your plant as live instruments. Around the editable diagram you get the finished-good SEE with its in-band check, total embedded emissions, your T1/T2/T3 data-provenance mix, and a readiness ring - every figure recomputed by the engine, never guessed. Click any step or flow to edit it in the side panel and the instruments update instantly. A one-click ◎ Tour button walks a first-timer through the whole screen.
Two views, one plant
- Twin - model and edit the plant on the canvas, with value hints: the unit is fixed to what the engine expects and typical emission factors are one tap away, so a value can't be off by 1000× (the classic kg-vs-tonne slip).
- Compliance - a co-pilot view of certificates, declarations, deadlines and verified-SEE, with buttons that act: buy certificates, assemble the declaration, refresh the regulatory dataset.
Enter many values fast - the table editor
For bulk entry, the ⊞ Table editor (linked from the cockpit) lists every process step and flow with dropdowns, and pastes your figures straight from a spreadsheet or an ERP / meter export. It is the same plant and the same guardrails - just a faster way in when you have a lot of numbers.
What keeps your data correct
| Guardrail | What it does |
|---|---|
| Structure rules | You can only connect steps in ways that are physically valid for your route - invalid links are refused on the canvas and again on save. |
| Value hints | The unit is constrained to what the engine expects and typical emission factors are one tap away - so a figure can't be off by an order of magnitude. |
| Plausibility bands | Each value shows an expected range; a figure far outside it turns amber with a hint (advisory - it never changes your number). |
| Unit checks | The app flags likely kg-vs-tonne slips - a common, costly mistake - before they reach the engine. |
Flight recorder & the audit bundle
Snapshot a period and it is frozen - immutable and version-pinned; What changed diffs this period against the last, every delta engine-derived. When you are ready, one click downloads the full audit bundle: a PDF report, the registry QReport XML, the engine graph & balances, the frozen snapshot with its version pins, an evidence index and your actual uploaded verifier files - in one ZIP an auditor can open cold.
Live demo - see it compute (no login)
The fastest way to understand the Balance Twin is the public demo at /demo. Pick any sector and route and watch a real plant find its emissions, live, in about a minute.
- The ribbons show where mass, energy, carbon or cost actually flows - thicker means more. Toggle the lens with SEE BY.
- The Cost lens weights by the live CBAM certificate price (the same price the forecast uses).
- Every route across all six sectors is here - use the tabs along the top.
- Try it with my plant takes you into the full app to model your own.
2 - Calculator: engine-certified figures
The Calculator posts your good to the engine and returns exactly what your official export will contain: embedded emissions, CBAM liability in EUR, and the number of certificates required.
- Enter the CN code, mass (in tonnes) and country of origin (where the good is made).
- Add your verified SEE (Specific Embedded Emissions) if you have one; leave it blank to use the official EU default - the required mark-up is applied automatically.
- Enter any carbon price already paid abroad - the engine deducts it (the Article 9 / CPE credit).
- Read the certified result, then Post Declaration when ready.
3 - Forecasting: plan cost & scenarios
Forecasting turns today's plants into a forward cost picture across the CBAM phase-in years, and lets you stress-test the carbon-price assumptions.
- Import my plants - pulls your engine-verified data so the base year is certified, not estimated.
- Pick a price scenario (top-right dropdown; analyst consensus by default) to set the forward shape.
- What-If Scenarios tab - compares all scenarios side by side. This is your sensitivity analysis.
- Decarbonization ROI tab - shows the payback of reducing emissions; the treasury reads your real ledger.
4 - Certificates: hold & surrender
This module tracks your certificate position against the obligation: a minimum you must hold through the year, and the annual surrender that settles your liability.
- Record Transaction - log a purchase or a surrender (quantity + unit price).
- Quarterly Holding Check - enter the period and your year-to-date emissions to see whether you hold enough.
- The holding percentage and price come from the Regulatory module, so the whole app shares one live source.
5 - Compliance: deadlines & de-minimis
Everything time-sensitive in one place, driven by the live regulatory snapshot so it stays correct as rules change.
- De-minimis check - enter your cumulative CBAM-good net mass this year (excluding electricity & hydrogen). Under 50 t you're provisionally exempt; crossing it pulls the whole year into scope.
- Compliance timeline - the key dates and obligations at a glance.
- Compliance calendar - your personal deadline list, with overdue items highlighted.
6 - Reports: the official XML
When your data is ready, Reports generates the official CBAM declaration as XML, validated against the EU schema, for upload to the CBAM Registry.
- Review your products and figures (all engine-certified).
- Generate the QReport XML - it's validated against the official schema before you download.
- Upload the file in the EU CBAM Registry. The numbers in the file are exactly what you saw on screen.
Supplier portal
Invite your suppliers to submit their emissions data directly, so your precursors carry verified values instead of defaults. Better upstream data usually lowers your liability, because defaults carry a mark-up.
Suppliers reach a controlled portal with an invitation key, enter their data, and a verifier reviews it - then you file the lower, defensible number.
Data sources & ingest
Connect the platform to where your evidence lives - file uploads, supplier submissions and enterprise connectors. Ingest reads documents (including OCR on invoices and declarations) and extracts the CBAM-relevant fields.
Verification (verifier dashboard)
Where an accredited reviewer examines supplier emissions declarations for your organisation and marks them reviewed. Verified data is what lowers your liability versus defaults.
Declarant & delegation
The declarant is the authorised party that submits the CBAM declaration. If a customs broker or consultancy files for you, set up delegation here so their submission is linked to your account.
Regulatory - the live rulebook
The single, source-cited snapshot the whole app reads from: phase-in factors, the holding obligation, de-minimis, the default-value mark-up, deadlines, and the current certificate price. It also shows how current the data is. When you want to check 'what rule is the app using', this is the authoritative place.
Help centre & the AI assistant
Two layers of help are always one click away.
- Help centre (/help) - search any topic; every module has a walkthrough, plus deadlines, data-accuracy tips, FAQ and troubleshooting.
- Contextual '?' - a quick tip right where you are.
- Ask about CBAM - the AI assistant is grounded on this same help content and cites it. It explains and routes you to the right screen, but never states a figure (that's the calculator's job).
Glossary - the terms that matter
| Term | Plain meaning |
|---|---|
| SEE (Specific Embedded Emissions) | Emissions embedded in one tonne of your product (tCO2e per tonne) - direct emissions plus its precursors. |
| Precursor | An upstream input whose emissions are carried into the finished good (e.g. pig iron before steel). Templates already include the right precursors. |
| Default value | Official EU emissions figure used when you have no verified data - carries a mark-up (10/20/30% for aluminium, cement, iron & steel; 1% flat for fertilizers). |
| De-minimis | A single 50-tonne net-mass threshold per importer per year. Under it, provisionally exempt; over it, the whole year is in scope. |
| Phase-in factor | The share of embedded emissions subject to CBAM as EU free allocation phases out (2.5% in 2026, rising to 100% by 2034). |
| CPE / Article 9 credit | A deduction for a carbon price you already paid in the country of origin - applied exactly once. |
| Certificate | What you buy and surrender: 1 certificate = 1 tonne CO2e. A quarterly minimum must be held; the balance is surrendered annually. |
FAQ & quick fixes
Why is the app's number different from my spreadsheet?
The engine applies the full rule set - default mark-ups, the year's phase-in factor, precursor emissions and any carbon-price deduction. A hand estimate usually misses one. The engine figure is the one that matches your filing.
Forecasting shows a demo portfolio - is that my data?
No. It opens on a demo (badged amber). Click Import my plants to load your verified data; the badge turns green.
A field turned amber - did I do something wrong?
No - it's a 'please confirm'. The value is outside the usual range for your route, so the app asks you to double-check. If it's correct, keep it.
My change didn't appear on screen.
Do a hard reload (Ctrl+Shift+R). The browser can serve a cached page even after the app updated.
The live price says 'unavailable'.
Forecasting falls back to scenario prices (and says so) - your projection is still valid. Check the Regulatory page to confirm the current published price is present.