Here's an update on what’s new with XBRL and how it can actually benefit your organization versus adding extra time and costs to financial reporting. On February 29th (leap day)
of 2012 I attended
the XBRL and Financial Analysis Technology Conference at Baruch College in NYC.
The event, which attracted over 300 XBRL gurus and fans was presented by XBRL US,
The New York Society
of Security Analysts’ Improved Corporate Reporting Committee, and Baruch College’s Robert Zicklin Center for Corporate Integrity.
The event featured keynotes from
the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), and
the CFA Institute as well as panels covering alternative research tools and data, corporate reporting to stakeholders and a demonstration
of XBRL analysis tools.
The program culminated in a presentation
of the finalists and
the winner
of the $20,000 XBRL Challenge.
Some
of the key points made in
the sessions included:
The focus
of XBRL tools is moving from production to consumption.
As
of February
2012, over 9000 companies are reporting in XBRL, with over 10 million facts filed to date
XBRL taxonomy extensions have dropped from 27% to 11% making comparisons easier
The SEC reports that XBRL makes it easier to analyze disclosures, focus on accounting issues
XBRL is helping standards-setters like
the FASB speed their analysis
of impacts
of proposed accounting rule changes
Companies like Thomson Reuters report that XBRL is helping speed
the delivery
of data to clients
The most interesting part
of the program though, was
the session highlighting
the 5 finalists in
the XBRL Challenge competition and
the winning solution.
The XBRL Challenge was launched in 2011 as a means
of spurring
the development
of more end-user tools to help with
the consumption
of XBRL-based financial information. Over an 8-month process handled by 5 judges, there were 84 registrants, 15 completed submissions, 5 finalists and one winner
of the challenge. All
of the solutions are open-sourced tools and most
of them focus on consuming XBRL-based data.
The 5 finalists included:
Advanced XBRL Processing from Oxide solutions – XBRL viewer for taxonomies, filings and company data with peer comparison capabilities.
Arrelle – API for XBRL processes, supports SEC Validations, RSS Feeds to access filings etc.
Calcbench – XBRL data analysis tool that can be embedded in other web applications. This tool can combine XBRL filings with real-time market data.
XBRL to XL – allows
the importing
of XBRL data into Microsoft Excel for analysis, comparisons. Users start on
the web and populate Excel with XBRL data.
XBurble – allows users to search and view XBRL filings, export to Excel, merge for comparison, and includes a workflow interface.
The winner
of the $20,000 XBRL Challenge prize was CalcBench. More information about
the XBRL Challenge and
the finalists can be found at www.XBRLUS.org/challenge
XBRL for Sustainability Reporting – other recent news on
the XBRL front was the announcement by
the Global Reporting Initiative (GRI)
of an XBRL taxonomy for Sustainability Reporting. This taxonomy was co-developed by
the GRI and Deloitte and is designed to make
the consumption
of data found in Sustainability Reports much easier. Although there is no government mandate to file Sustainability Reports in XBRL format, organizations that do use
the GRI guidelines for Sustainability Reporting are encouraged to tag and submit their data voluntarily to
the GRI – who will populate a database with Sustainability Reporting data and make this available to
the public. For more information about this initiative, you can go to
the GRI web site: www.globalreporting.org.
So how does all
of this benefit corporate filers and investors? Since its introduction,
the consensus in
the market is that XBRL has mainly benefited
the regulators and investment analysts who need to consume and analyze large volumes
of financial data. But with
the emergence
of more end-user tools for consuming and analyzing XBRL-based data, and
the ability to perform quick comparisons
of one company versus its peers and competitors in an industry group, will soon accelerate
the benefits to corporate finance staff, as well as individual investors. This could apply to financial results tagged in XBRL, as well as non-financial information such as Sustainability Reporting – which over
the long-term will likely be integrated with financial reporting. And as multiple regulators and agencies in a country adopt
the XBRL standard for corporate filings, more benefits will accrue as companies will be able to leverage one set
of XBRL-based financial data for multiple regulatory filings.
For more information about
the latest developments in XBRL, check out
the XBRL US or XBRL International web sites: www.xbrl.org, www.xbrlus.org.
For more information about what Oracle is doing to support XBRL, here are some links:
http://www.oracle.com/us/solutions/ent-performance-bi/disclosure-management-065892.html
http://www.oracle.com/technetwork/database/features/xmldb/index-087631.html
Feel free to contact me if you have any questions or need more information:
[email protected]