A CBAM consultant helps a producer or importer set up emissions monitoring, calculate embedded emissions per good, prepare the operator’s emissions report and get ready for verification. There are three ways to get that work done: hire a consultant, do it in-house with CBAM software, or have a team run the software for you. None of them replaces the independent accredited verifier.
Published 6 November 2026
CBAM consulting, services and support cover the same core tasks whoever performs them. For the operator of an installation outside the EU, such as a steel, aluminium or cement plant:
For an EU importer the work is different: applying for authorised CBAM declarant status, collecting supplier data, buying certificates and filing the annual declaration. Customs and legal advice on those steps is a field where a specialist adviser earns its fee.
Hiring a consultant moves the calculation, not the data. Somebody inside the plant still has to find the fuel and electricity invoices, read the meters, pull the production logs, explain how the processes connect, and host the verifier on site. If that happens once a year, the year is reconstructed from paper each time, and the same questions come back the next year.
Ask any consultant to show you how much of your own team’s time their scope assumes. No fee comparison means much without that number.
Under Delegated Regulation (EU) 2025/2551, a CBAM verifier must be independent of the operator, and providing consultancy or technical assistance that helps develop the operator’s monitoring and reporting process is an unacceptable risk to its impartiality. So the firm that prepares your data cannot be the firm that verifies it.
All three can produce an operator’s emissions report a verifier will accept. They differ in who carries the work each month, who holds the records afterwards, and what the second year costs.
| CBAM consultant | In-house with software | Managed CBAM | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Who does the monthly work | The consultant, with data from your team, usually once a year | Your team enters or scans records; the platform calculates | Our team, from the documents you forward |
| Who holds the records afterwards | Depends on the contract; often the consultant’s own workbook | You, in your own account | You, in your own account; we operate it |
| Judgement on hard cases | The consultant’s real strength | Method built in; your team decides | Our team, with the method built in |
| Trace for the verifier | Depends on the consultant | A trace per good, back to the source document | The same trace, kept current for you |
| Supplier and precursor requests | Often in scope, often extra | Your team sends them | Requested and followed up for you |
| Next year | A new engagement | Same installation, new period | Same installation, new period |
| How it is priced | The consultant’s own quotation | Compliance & Export plan, €699 a month | Per installation, written quotation within 48 hours |
| Verification | Not by the same firm | Independent accredited verifier | Independent accredited verifier |
Managed CBAM is the Karbon360 platform operated by our team under a separate written agreement. You forward the invoices, production figures and shipping papers, by email or on paper, and we keep the installation current and produce the reports CBAM requires of the operator, on time, every period. Everything stays in your own account, with the same calculation trace a verifier follows.
It is priced per installation on a written quotation, with you within 48 hours, and scope and price are fixed before you commit. Verification is still carried out by an independent accredited verifier you appoint.
For a producer outside the EU: maps goods, processes and precursors, writes the monitoring plan, calculates specific embedded emissions per good, prepares the operator’s emissions report and helps get ready for verification. For an EU importer: helps with authorised declarant status, supplier data and the annual declaration.
There is no standard price; each consultant quotes its own fee, and the fee matters less than the scope and your own team’s time it assumes. At Karbon360, the CBAM module is part of the Compliance & Export plan at €699 a month, and Managed CBAM is quoted per installation, in writing, within 48 hours.
Not necessarily. A plant with a clear production route and one person who can own the monthly records can do it in-house with software. A consultant is worth it for unusual routes, on-site metering design or legal and customs questions. If you simply lack the time, a managed service does the recurring work.
No. Verification must be done by an independent verifier accredited by a national accreditation body. A firm that helped develop your monitoring and reporting process cannot verify it under Delegated Regulation (EU) 2025/2551.
A consultant usually delivers a project in its own files. Managed CBAM is our team operating the Karbon360 platform for you on a continuing basis: the records, calculations and trace stay in your account, and the next reporting period builds on the last one.
No. Karbon360 is carbon management software built in the Western Balkans. It does not verify, certify or approve emissions; it prepares the installation data and the calculation trace an independent accredited verifier reviews.
Run CBAM yourself on the platform, or have our team run it for you under a written agreement. Either way, verification stays with an independent accredited verifier.
