Digital Reporting Tools for SMEs: Inside EFRAG’s VSME Ecosystem
EFRAG continues to expand the technical infrastructure supporting non-financial reporting by SMEs. Its latest publication introduces three key tools designed to help small businesses prepare structured, consistent, and machine-readable sustainability disclosures.
As part of the VSME Ecosystem deliverables dedicated to companies with fewer than 250 employees, EFRAG has released the first version of the VSME Digital Template and the accompanying XBRL Taxonomy. These tools are designed to support the Voluntary Sustainability Reporting Standard for SMEs (VSME), which was submitted as technical advice to the European Commission in December 2024.
Development Context and Intended Audience
The VSME Standard is specifically intended for use by non-listed SMEs, including micro-enterprises. It has not been tested for larger or more complex companies and aims to support SMEs in applying the VSME Standard by standardising the custom questionnaires that many currently face.
The VSME Digital Template and XBRL Taxonomy form part of the "VSME Support Guides", the fifth deliverable in the VSME ecosystem. Their development was shaped by feedback collected during the VSME Exposure Draft consultation held between January and May 2024. Further refinements were based on targeted consultations with SME Forum and DRCF members in April 2025.
VSME Digital Template
The VSME Digital Template, implemented as an Excel workbook, illustrates how sustainability reporting can be structured in line with the VSME Standard. It is technically aligned with the XBRL Taxonomy and supports data entry, validation, and formula-based checks tailored to small preparers. Developed based on extensive stakeholder feedback, the template incorporates conditional logic, structured inputs, and embedded links to standard guidance to support first-time reporters.
Each disclosure point in the template is mapped to a named Excel range corresponding to an XBRL element. This facilitates conversion into a digital XBRL report using the Digital Template to XBRL Converter. Value cells left empty or containing only a dash (“-”) are excluded from the resulting digital report.
Source: VSME Digital Template
The template includes interactive checkboxes, drop-down menus for semi-narrative disclosures, auto-calculation of totals, and formula-based validations. It also features hyperlinks to paragraph-level VSME guidance, a colour-coded system that distinguishes between different types of disclosures (e.g. Basic/Comprehensive, Conditional), and tooltips to assist users.
A built-in fuel-to-MWh converter supports energy-related disclosures. Metadata fields, including the reporting period, entity name, and an entity identifier, are required to generate a digital XBRL report. While the VSME Standard does not mandate the use of a unique identifier, the EFRAG Secretariat recommends an international and verifiable one, such as the Legal Entity Identifier (LEI). Other supported identifiers include DUNS, EU ID, and PermID, though only LEI currently supports digital signature functionality.
The template is password-protected to prevent modification of named ranges or formulas. Altering these renders the file incompatible with XBRL conversion.
VSME XBRL Taxonomy
The VSME XBRL Taxonomy defines a structured, tool-independent model for digitalising VSME disclosures. By providing a dedicated data element for each datapoint, it ensures standardised, license-free data exchange and compatibility across systems. The taxonomy supports various technical formats, including Inline XBRL, XBRL-JSON, and XBRL-CSV, with Inline XBRL allowing both human- and machine-readable reporting without manual tagging.
Maintained by EFRAG, the taxonomy models all mathematical relationships between datapoints – such as total GHG emissions, employee counts, and revenues – using the Calculation Linkbase. For each datapoint with a specific unit of measurement, the taxonomy includes unit references aligned with the Unit Registry (UTR), enabling XBRL software to retrieve and display the correct measurement unit via the label Linkbase. Unit IDs from the UTR are enclosed in curly brackets.
Employee-related datapoints follow an "instant" period type. The specific methodology – whether end-of-period or average – is specified in the Excel template via enumerations. Examples of these elements include NumberOfEmployees, NumberOfFemaleEmployees, and others. Some template-only features, such as conditional logic cells (yellow fields), are excluded from the taxonomy.
The taxonomy also provides identifiers for linking sequential reports, integrates support for pollutant and waste lists via dimensions, and includes rules for ratios and measurement units. Narrative elements are handled as simplified text blocks in single cells, avoiding tagging hierarchies.
Future plans include adding new element types (e.g. GPS Location), introducing technical entry points for taxonomy extensions, and supporting additional entity-specific disclosures.
Digital Template to XBRL Converter
EFRAG provides an open-source Digital Template to XBRL Converter, enabling automated transformation of the Excel-based template into compliant digital reports. This tool relies on named ranges in Excel that must match the local names of elements in the VSME XBRL Taxonomy.
Source: Digital Template to XBRL Converter
The converter is available online and as a command-line application. Key features include:
- Mapping Excel data to XBRL using named ranges;
- Compatibility with the VSME Digital Template and XBRL Taxonomy;
- Production of a human-readable Inline XBRL file, including an embedded viewer;
- Generation of an XBRL Report Package and XBRL-JSON format;
- Full validation against XBRL specifications using Arelle;
- Deployment via Flask or CLI, with integration capabilities via API.
To support broader adoption, market participants may adapt their own templates or feed values through the converter API. Core metadata – such as entity identifiers and report period – must be provided. If missing, conversion fails.
The converter issues various validation messages across categories such as Excel Parsing, Conversion, and XBRL Validation. Each message type includes severity and debugging detail. While it verifies technical compliance, it does not check completeness of disclosures under the VSME Standard.
The tool generates several outputs:
- Inline XBRL Report (XHTML with viewer);
- Inline XBRL Report Package (without viewer);
- XBRL-JSON dataset.
Conclusion
The VSME Digital Toolkit offers an unprecedented opportunity for small and medium-sized enterprises to participate in sustainability reporting through a structured, efficient, and technically supported framework. With a pre-filled, formula-driven Excel template, a machine-readable taxonomy, and an automated converter, EFRAG has lowered the barrier for non-listed SMEs to prepare meaningful ESG disclosures.
All links to the tools and documents mentioned are provided below.
Explanatory Note
VSME Digital Template and Explanatory Note (PDF), published on 27 May 2025.
VSME Digital Template
VSME Digital Template Version 1.0.1 (XLSX, 500KB), published on 16 June 2025.
Digital Template to XBRL Converter
