Your boundary document records every boundary decision, the reason for it and the evidence behind it. A reader must be able to take your entity list, your site list and your leases, apply your rules, and reach the same inventory.
What does the boundary document contain?
Section | What to record | Bluegum example |
1. Reporting entity and period | The legal entity that reports, and the period. Both match the financial statements | Bluegum Group Holdings Ltd, FY26 (1 July 2025 to 30 June 2026) |
2. Consolidation approach | The approach, the reason for it, and how it relates to the AASB S2 objective in paragraph 27 (B27(b)) | Financial control. It follows the financial statements, so users see emissions for the same group whose financial performance they assess |
3. Entity list | Each entity, its accounting treatment, ownership %, share in Scope 1 and 2, Scope 3 category if not in Scope 1 and 2, dates in or out, and the source document | Summit Packs: subsidiary, 70%, Scope 1 and 2 at 100%. Coastline Kayaks: joint venture under joint control, 50%, Scope 1 and 2 at 50%. Ridgeline Supply Co: associate, 25%, Category 15 at 25% |
4. Sites and assets | Each site and major asset, who owns it, the control decision and the evidence | Brisbane 3PL warehouse: the 3PL owns it, employs the staff and holds the energy account. A purchased service, so Category 4 |
5. Leases | Each lease, whether you are lessee or lessor, finance or operating, the evidence for the classification, and the scope or category | 12 utes: 4-year operating leases, ownership does not transfer. Category 8, including the fuel Bluegum buys |
6. Scope 3 relevance table | For each of the 15 categories: relevant or not, the criteria applied, material under AASB S2 or not, included in the figure or excluded with an exclusion record, and the method | Category 14: relevant (4 franchise stores), included in the figure from 3 stores' bills and 1 estimate |
7. Exclusion record | For each exclusion: what, where it would sit, size estimate, basis of the estimate, reason, and when you review it | |
8. Pending events | Each event that is not yet certain, its scenarios, and the default treatment until it is certain | See the Coastline example below |
9. Base year and recalculation policy | The base year, the recalculation triggers and the significance threshold | FY25 base year for all scopes. Recalculate at 5% of base year emissions, cumulative |
10. Change log | Each change: date, what changed, why, effect in tCO2e, who approved it | 1 March 2026: Trailhead Rentals acquired, in at 100% from that date |
11. Judgements and estimates | Each significant judgement, and each estimate with high measurement uncertainty: what it is, the amount it affects, the basis, and the alternative you rejected | Joint control of Coastline Kayaks; classification of the 12 ute leases; estimate for the fourth Basecamp store |
12. Ownership and approval | For each version: the owner, the reviewer, the approver and the approval date | Owner: sustainability manager. Reviewer: group financial controller. Approved by the CFO, 14 July 2026 |
What evidence goes with each decision?
Point to a document that someone else can check. Use the documents your finance team already holds:
Entities: the list of entities consolidated in your financial statements for any part of the year, reconciled to the acquisitions and disposals note, and the notes on joint arrangements and associates. For each joint arrangement, keep the joint arrangement agreement and your finance team's AASB 11 classification.
Leases: the lease register and the lease contract. The classification test is whether the lease transfers substantially all the risks and rewards of ownership. Being on the balance sheet under AASB 16 is not the test. Keep a lease classification memo: for each lease, or each group of similar leases, the classification, the indicators you checked, and who in finance reviewed it. See Leased premises, vehicles and equipment.
Sites: who owns the site, who holds the energy account, and the contract with any operator. See Test whether a site or asset is in your Scope 1 and 2.
Dates: the date the consolidated accounts include or exclude an entity, and the facility closure date.
A decision without a reason is not a record. "Category 10 not relevant" is not enough. "Category 10 not relevant: Bluegum sells finished goods, and nobody processes them further" is a record.
How do you show that your lists are complete?
Reconcile each list to a source that finance or operations already holds. Keep each reconciliation with the boundary document.
List | Reconcile it to |
Entities | The entities consolidated in the financial statements, including any disposed of during the year |
Sites | The property schedule and the fixed asset register |
Leases | The AASB 16 lease register, plus short-term and low-value leases that are not on it |
Fleet | The fleet register |
Energy and fuel | The energy and fuel spend in the ledger, against the activity data you loaded |
Which judgements and estimates do you record?
AASB S2 asks you to disclose the judgements with the most significant effect on your figures, and the amounts with high measurement uncertainty (Appendix D paragraphs 74 to 78). For Scope 1 and 2, your auditor reviews these disclosures from Year 1 (ASSA 5010 paragraph 10(a)).
Record each of these in section 11, where it applies to you:
The consolidation approach.
Joint control of each joint arrangement.
The classification of each lease, or each group of similar leases.
The control decision for each site that someone else runs.
Each exclusion.
Each estimate, such as home charging of company vehicles, revenue-based Category 15 figures, an estimated franchise store, or a floor-area share of a building's energy in Category 8.
For each one, state the basis, the amount it affects and the alternative you rejected.
How do you record an event that is not yet certain?
Write each scenario with its treatment, and state a default that applies until the event is certain. Then the inventory continues while a contract is negotiated.
Bluegum is negotiating to buy its partner's 50% of Coastline Kayaks.
Scenario | Treatment |
The purchase completes | Coastline becomes a subsidiary. Scope 1 and 2 at 100% from the date control passes. Scope 1 and 2 at 50% up to that date. Test the change against the recalculation policy |
The purchase does not complete | No change. Scope 1 and 2 at 50% |
Default until certain | Scope 1 and 2 at 50% |
When the event happens, move the entry to the change log.
An event after your year end, but before you approve your report, changes your figures only if it gives new information about conditions at year end. Otherwise, disclose it if it is material (AASB S2 Appendix D paragraphs 67 and 68). If the Coastline purchase completes in August 2026, Bluegum's FY26 figures do not change. See Buying, selling or closing part of the business.
When do you update it?
Review the whole document once each year, before data collection starts. Also update it when the business changes: an acquisition, a disposal, a new lease, a closed site, or a new product. Add each change to the change log as it happens, not at year end.
Keep the old versions. The base year and every comparative year depend on the boundary that applied at the time.
Who approves the boundary document?
Name an owner, a reviewer and an approver for each version. Record the approval date in section 12. Management tells your auditor in writing that the report follows the criteria and that it gave all relevant information (ASSA 5000 paragraph 165). Directors make a declaration on the sustainability report. An approved boundary document is evidence for both.
How does it relate to the Basis of Preparation?
Boundary document | Basis of Preparation | |
Answers | What is in your inventory, and why? | How were this year's figures produced? |
Covers | Every year, with a change log | One reporting period |
Contains | Decisions, evidence, scenarios and history | A summary of the boundary, plus methods, data sources, emission factors, estimates and restatements |
The reporting boundary section of the Basis of Preparation summarises the boundary document as it stood at the end of the period. The two must agree. If they do not, fix the boundary document first, then the Basis of Preparation. See What a Basis of Preparation is.
What this means in Avarni
Avarni has no field for the consolidation approach or for operational control. Record both in the boundary document.
Make the entity list under Organisation › Entities match section 3. Check Registered / acquired at and Disposed at against the dates in the document.
Make the facility list match section 4. Check each facility's Closed date. Avarni holds tenure and lease type on the facility record; make them match section 5.
Record account-level decisions, such as an account set to GHG Category Excluded, in the Justification column of your chart of accounts. Refer to them from section 7.
Set the Baseline Year under Forecasting to the base year in section 9.