A gap analysis answers one question: of everything AASB S2 requires, what do we already have, what exists but isn't documented, and what doesn't exist at all? Done properly it becomes the work plan for your first disclosure. Done as a consulting deliverable that scores "partially compliant" against four pillars, it becomes a PDF nobody opens again.
The method that works is control-level scoring. Take the 33 controls and score each one against your actual documents (board charters, risk registers, energy records, existing sustainability reports), not against what people say in workshops. Documents don't overstate readiness; people do. Each control gets a status, the evidence that supports it, and if it's a gap, an owner and a date.
Sequence the gaps backwards from your first reporting period. Long-lead items first: a Scope 3 baseline needs a year of data pipeline before it produces a number (details here), and scenario analysis needs asset data and climate projections assembled before any resilience assessment can run. Governance and risk-management controls are usually faster. Often the evidence exists and only the documentation is missing.
Then keep the scorecard alive. A gap analysis dated eighteen months before your first report is a historical artefact; the useful version is re-scored automatically as documents change, so at any moment you can see exactly what stands between you and a signable report. ComplianceAgent runs this as a live process: drop in your documents, get the scored analysis in hours, and keep it maintained from then on.
For a first cut before any of that, the free readiness check takes five minutes and shows you which group you're in (thresholds here) and where your biggest gaps are likely to sit.