Producing a CSR report is the ideal opportunity for companies to Organize the management of their ESG data and equip themselves. Thus, many European companies are using the CSRD to choose the CSRD software that will meet all their internal structuring needs on the subject.
Many solutions have quickly emerged in France and Europe, and companies can find it difficult to choose among all the CSRD software and choose the one that best meets their expectations.
Discover in this article the key features to remember for your tool.
What is CSRD?
To select the best CSRD software, we recommend that you start by learning about this directive to understand its ins and outs.
The Corporate Sustainability Reporting Directive
The CSRD (Corporate Sustainability Reporting Directive) is the new European directive governing non-financial reports - so-called sustainability reports - published annually by companies. This directive replaces the NFRD, in force since 2014, to Revolutionize the Way Companies Communicate on Their Social and Environmental Impacts.
Indeed, the CSRD aims to be more ambitious; it offers a more structured framework and avoids company greenwashing. Thus, it proposes to become The single ESG reporting framework for all European companies.
Which companies are affected by the directive?
The CSRD concerns nearly 50,000 companies in Europe, and proposes a progressive implementation schedule over the years.
- Wave 1 - Publication in 2025 for the 2024 financial year: Large Listed Companies with more than 500 employees.
- Wave 2 - Publication in 2026 for the 2025 financial year: All Large Companies, i.e. companies meeting at least 2 of the 3 criteria
- >250 employees
- >€50M turnover
- >€25M balance sheet
- Wave 3 - Publication in 2027 for the 2026 financial year: all Listed SMEs
- Wave 4 - Publication in 2029 for the 2028 financial year: Non-European companies with a turnover of at least €150 million on the European market.
The thresholds are applicable at the level of consolidated groups, not subsidiaries.
What are the changes to the CSRD with the Omnibus Law?
The Omnibus Proposal, published by the European Commission on 26 February 2025, follows the Draghi report on the competitiveness of European companies and aims to ease the European framework surrounding ESG reporting.
The three directives concerned by this proposal are the CSRD, the European Taxonomy and the CSDDD.
This two-part proposal suggests in particular:
- To Postpone the Obligations of Companies in Waves 2 and 3 by 2 Years
- To raise the CSRD thresholds to 1,000 employees, to ensure consistency with the CSDDD thresholds.
The implementation schedule is thus disrupted for Companies in Waves 2 and 3, which are still awaiting validation Of this new law by the end of 2025.
The 3 Reasons Why Using CSRD Software Is Essential
CSRD is a reporting revolution on all levels: content revolution, format revolution, internal organization revolution to manage the project, methodology revolution... Many Reasons are pushing companies to equip themselves with CSRD software to simplify the exercise .
The 3 main reasons that make using CSRD software essential are:
- To comply with ESRS
- To Cope with the Complexity of Indicators
- To produce a voluntary VSME report
1. Use a CSRD software to be ESRS compliant
ESRS are the reporting standards governing the information that companies must include in their sustainability report .
These 12 standards are divided into the three ESG categories: Environment, Social, and Governance. Arising from the ambition of the CSRD, the ESRS offers a comprehensive and detailed framework and suggest a very Large amount of specific information that Companies should produce for their report.
Using Dedicated CSRD Software Allows Companies to Not Need to Master ESRS to Produce Their Report .
Indeed, a specialized tool simplifies your understanding of the framework, guiding you, step by step, to navigate the ESRS requirements relevant to your business, and ensuring That your responses are in line with expectations .
2. Use a CSRD software to deal with the complexity of the indicators
Although quantitative indicators represent only a third of the information required for the CSRD, their compilation requires mastery of the methodologies proposed by the ESRS. Following the calculation rules and formulas indicated is a key step in ensuring the comparability of reports between companies.
Using CSRD software makes it easy to compile all environmental and social indicators, while ensuring compliance with ESRS methodologies .
Indeed, the tools naturally integrate data calculation and validation rules to ensure that your environmental and social data fits within the framework expected by auditors and report users. No more need to modify all your Excel formulas to obtain the correct indicators!
3. Use a CSRD software to produce a voluntary VSME report
Even if you are not affected by the CSRD, you may be required to produce a report observed - for example to highlight your maturity on ESG issues or to respond to questions from your stakeholders.
Although the voluntary reporting framework is less restrictive than mandatory reporting, we strongly recommend that you equip yourself with dedicated software. Using CSRD software allows you to reduce the complexity of reporting:
- One platform allows you to Easily Navigate All Reporting requirements
- A platform allows you to Sort through the requirements To select those that are truly relevant to your business
- A platform allows you to make a Smooth transition between voluntary reporting and your future reporting obligations.
The 5 Essential Features for My CSRD Software
Not all CSRD software on the market offers the same features. Here's a summary of the essential features to identify a robust tool.
1. Automatic production of compliant content
Your reporting platform should help you produce your report content as Easily as possible, while ensuring compliance with requirements . To achieve this, we suggest ensuring your software is capable of Automatically producing your report content, or that it incorporates rules for validating content compliance.
At Kiosk, our platform uses Artificial Intelligence to generate compliant paragraphs based on the answers you provide, in just one click!
2. Simplification of reporting requirements
With your tool, you shouldn't need to be a CSRD expert to produce your report! Not only should your tool be able to guide you, but it should Make it easier for you to understand the reporting requirements .
Whether it's Built-in explanations, referrals to informative links , or simply through expert guidance, we recommend that you pay attention to the level of understanding made possible by the software.
At Kiosk, our experts have worked to simplify reporting standards to build a clear platform. We've also integrated specific explanations into each requirement. Kiosk, the platform that makes you the expert on your reporting!
3. Automatic data integration
As we all know, ESG is a broad field that requires consolidating data from across the company's teams. Your reporting tool should make this collection effortless across the entire company. We recommend choosing CSRD software that can collect data in multiple ways To ensure the methods fit your operational constraints.
At Kiosk, our software has 4 types of data collection: API integration on one of your existing information systems, import of standardized files (FEC, DSN) or not, sending questionnaires and manual completion.
4. Native data tagging
One of the primary goals of the CSRD is to be able to compare companies with each other. In fact, your report must be computer-readable, and therefore Tagged. Tagging by hand (~4000 tags) is a heavy and repetitive task, without any real added value for your team. To Relieve Your Burden, We Recommend Selecting CSRD software capable of automatically tagging your final report.
At Kiosk, our platform is built to natively integrate data tagging and export your report in a compliant format. So, no more questions!
5. Performance management dashboard
Reporting for the sake of reporting doesn't make sense for a business today. The primary purpose of this exercise is to monitor your ESG performance year after year. You need to ensure your data is available at the right level of granularity to allow you to make data-driven decisions. We therefore recommend selecting CSRD software that Includes a dashboard that allows you to visualize your KPIs for continuous improvement.
At Kiosk, an indicator management dashboard is integrated into all our customers' environments.
Conclusion
Implementing ESG performance management and reporting software is an essential step in any structured CSR strategy. Given the variety available on the current market, it's essential to understand your needs to select the most appropriate tool.
To better understand the differences between all the CSRD software on the French market, do not hesitate to consult the MEDEF study.
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FAQs
Find answers to common questions about CSRD and Kiosk
The CSRD or Corporate Sustainability Reporting Directive is the new European directive which aims to impose and better regulate corporate sustainability reports.
It makes companies more transparent, with standardized ESG reporting standards called ESRS (European Sustainability Reporting Standards)
The application of the Corporate Sustainability Reporting Directive is progressive. Here is a summary table.
| Effective year | Businesses impacted | Standard |
|---|---|---|
| 2025 (over the financial year 2024) | Listed companies with more than 500 employees | ESRS |
| 2026 (sur l’exercice 2025) | Autres grandes entreprises de plus de 1000 salariés | ESRS |
| 2026 (over the financial year 2025) | Businesses that meet two out of three criteria: | VSME |
| 2027 (over the year 2026) | SMEs listed on the stock exchange | VSME |
| 2029 (over the fiscal year 2028) | Non-European companies with at least €150M in turnover on the European market | ESRS |
Want to know when your business is impacted? Use our regulatory monitoring tool to find out.
The "omnibus" bill is a recent initiative by the European Commission aimed at reducing the scope of the CSRD directive. It proposes, in particular, to raise the application thresholds: only companies with more than 1,000 employees would be affected, compared to 250 previously.
It promotes the adoption of the VSME framework to reduce the reporting burden on SMEs and mid-cap companies.
The VSME (Voluntary Sustainability Reporting Standard) is a voluntary European standard designed to help unlisted small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) structure and communicate their sustainability initiatives. Developed by EFRAG, this standard offers a lighter framework compared to ESRS standards, covering ESG aspects. It allows in particular to:
- Harmonizing sustainable reporting practices in Europe
- Facilitate the response to the expectations of business partners
- Improving access to responsible financing
It aims to harmonize sustainable reporting practices, facilitate meeting the expectations of business partners, and improve access to responsible financing. Although not mandatory, adopting VSME allows SMEs to demonstrate their commitment to sustainability and anticipate future regulatory developments.
- Complete the preliminary steps for the CSRD
These steps are dual materiality analysis and gap analysis. They will help you understand the material issues, impacts, risks, and opportunities for your business. They will also allow you to create a roadmap based on what you have already achieved.
Check out our article on double materiality here.
- Compile your data and produce your indicators
Centralizing sustainability data is essential for your compliance, particularly to facilitate understanding and consistency when producing quantitative indicators.
- Produce your detailed report in XHTML format with XBRL tags
Thanks to its tagging and visualization technologies, Kiosk guarantees a very high level of consistency.
Find our article on XBRL tagging here .
- Audit your data
At the end of these steps, your sustainability report is ready to be audited by an Independent Third Party Organization (ITO).
Kiosk supports your compliance journey throughout this process. For more information on these steps, we invite you to contact our team.
CSRD compliance requires companies to:
- understanding the 12 ESRS and 82 disclosure requirements
- the collection of more than 1,000 data points
- the calculation of 50-147 quantitative indicators
- tagging 4,000 items in the final report
Kiosk is a software that allows companies to save 5 months on the preparation of their CSRD report by automating the most time-consuming steps.
- First of all, the security of your data is our priority.
- All data is stored in France, in Paris, via our French hosting provider.
- During transit, your data is encrypted in SSL/TLS from the user's browser to our servers guaranteeing the security of communications.
- Data is also encrypted at rest, both on the database and on file storage, protecting the data in the event of a leak or attempted theft.
- Kiosk's technical teams are the only ones who can access your data.
- Kiosk is in the process of ISO27001 certification.
- Our technical support is available 24/7.