---
title: How to choose a baseline date for inventory project.
description: Field enrollment date
---

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# How to choose a baseline date for inventory project.

## Understand what a field enrollment date represents and how it will be used in your calculations.

### Overview

When setting up an Inventory project, one of the most important decisions you will make is choosing a `field_enrollment_date` for each field. This date defines the boundary between your **baseline period** (historical emissions) and your **reporting period** (progress toward your emissions goals). Getting this date right is essential — in some cases it stays fixed over the life of the program and directly shapes the baseline numbers against which your progress is compared.

This article explains what the `field_enrollment_date` represents, how it is used in calculations, and how to choose the right date for your specific program structure.

### What Is a Field Enrollment Date?

The `field_enrollment_date` is a **field-level, date** that marks when a given field joined your sustainability program. It is supplied per field in the API and does not change from year to year.

Today, the API consideres everything that occurred **before** this date to be the baseline period — the historical reference point for emissions. Everything **after** this date falls within reporting period(s), which is a rolling quantification of your program's emissions progress.

### How the Date Is Used

The `field_enrollment_date` drives two things:

1. **Baseline calculation** — Regrow uses the cultivation history prior to this date to establish a field's baseline emissions.
2. **Reporting calculation (progress measurement)** — Emissions during the reporting period (after this date) which can be compared against the baseline.

Because the date is defined at the **field level**, each field can have its own enrollment date, giving you flexibility to reflect the actual structure of your program

### Choosing the Right Date: Two Common Approaches

There are two primary ways clients set this date, depending on their program goals. The approach you choose should reflect what outcome you are trying to measure.

#### Approach 1: Program Start Date (Fixed Reference Point) *recommended*

In this approach, all fields — regardless of when they were physically onboarded — share a common `field_enrollment_date` that corresponds to when your organization's sustainability program officially began.

![](https://help.regrow.ag/hs-fs/hubfs/image-png-Oct-27-2026-02-04-41-6401-PM.png?width=2688&height=1270&name=image-png-Oct-27-2026-02-04-41-6401-PM.png)

##### When to use this approach:

- Your organization committed to a program starting on a specific date (e.g., "Our 2024–2028 sustainability initiative").
- You want a consistent, baseline period that applies equally across all fields.
- Your reporting requirement references a fixed program start year rather than individual field enrollment timelines.

Example: A company begins a sustainability program in January 2024 with the goal of tracking emissions reductions through 2028. All enrolled fields — whether added in Jan 2024 or not — receive a `field_enrollment_date` of January 1, 2024.

#### Approach 2: Field-by-Field Enrollment Date (Rolling)

In this approach, each field's `field_enrollment_date` is set to the date that specific field actually joined the program — even if fields enroll in different years.

![](https://help.regrow.ag/hs-fs/hubfs/image-png-Oct-27-2026-02-06-49-9734-PM.png?width=2894&height=1714&name=image-png-Oct-27-2026-02-06-49-9734-PM.png)

##### When to use this approach:

- Your program onboards new fields annually or over multiple years.
- You want the baseline for each field to reflect conditions immediately before that field entered the program.
- Your goal is to measure improvement on a field-by-field basis from the moment each field enrolled.

Example: An operator onboards 50 fields in 2025 and 30 more in 2026. The 2025 fields have a `field_enrollment_date` of January 1, 2025, and the 2026 fields have a `field_enrollment_date` of January 1, 2026.

##### When you should not use this approach:

If you want your baseline number to remain constant year over year, you should not use this approach and instead add these new fields to a new project. Adding fields changes the project's overall crop-level baseline calculation.

### Dual Outcomes Consideration

**For Intervention and Inventory customers:** If your project includes both Inventory and Intervention components, the `field_enrollment_date` is entered the same way for both.

The baseline *calculations* will differ between project types — Inventory baselines reflect historical land emissions, while Intervention baselines represent a counterfactual (what emissions would have been without the intervention).

However for programs that choose to continue to enroll fields year over year for intervention purposes, they will inevitably see their baseline change for their inventory.

Alignment with reporting standards and rebaselining: Inventory reporting standards vary by framework. If your program follows a specific standard that references a "base period" or "base year," align your field\_enrollment\_date accordingly. When in doubt, consult your Regrow account team.

### Summary

The `field_enrollment_date` is a powerful and flexible parameter, but the date you choose has lasting implications for how your baseline is defined and how your progress is measured. Take time to align this decision with your program's reporting goals before submitting fields to the API.

If you have questions about which approach best fits your program structure, please reach out to your Regrow customer success contact.

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