This Week in XBRL: Myths and Education

In a continued effort to educate on the development of XBRL technology in industries such as financial services (and beyond), Merrill Corporation will share articles and columns published on the topic.

Working within the XBRL world, it can be difficult for us to determine what information on the topic is being misconstrued by the public. Obviously, as experts in the platform, when asked questions, we can provide responses. But if the questions aren't even being asked, that makes it more difficult. This idea was made more obvious to us after reading an interesting blog identifying some common place XBRL myths.

The bottom line is that education is key. We know that it is a confusing subject, so just getting the basics is a start. For example, here in a brief article we found, they broke down three key concepts that are crucial to understanding how things function:

1. There are two forms of digital information: Structured and Unstructured. The former consists of data that is organized in a way that makes it easily handled by software. The latter is more chaotic in origin, with little or no clear organization. This type of data is impractical to use and difficult to navigate. 
2. Data is structured in two different ways: Readability or Usability. For example, the same data would be written one way to be shared in a document or presentation, and in a completely different way to be analyzed by software. 
3. There are two parts to structured information: Syntax or Symantics. Syntax describes the form of the information, generally relevant to a technical person, but not a business person. Semantics communicates the meaning of the information, which is more relevant for mainstream use.

Of course, these are just the basics. To take full advantage of XBRL's benefits, we suggest discussions with industry experts that work with the technology everyday.

----- 

Merrill Corporation is proud to offer XBRL Complete, a suite of services that meets - and has options to exceed – the mandated requirements for XBRL for mutual funds. For more information, please click here or call 866-367-9110.

This Week in XBRL - Financial Literacy Month & XBRL Conferences

In a continued effort to educate on the development of XBRL technology in industries such as financial services (and beyond), Merrill Corporation will share articles and columns published on the topic.

We are most of the way into April and have yet to wish everyone that reads the Merrill Corp. FinServ blog a happy Financial Literacy Month. While this concept is based on educating the consumer on their budgeting and banking, it does remind those of us within the industry that the learning process for us should never end either.

With that in mind, this is the perfect time to mention two significant conferences over the next several months in which education in XBRL will be at the forefront. The obvious one is the 22nd XBRL International Conference, which is is produced by XBRL International, Inc. and is hosted by XBRL Europe. Being held in Brussels next month, this year's theme is Sharing Economic Information in a Global World: The XBRL Contribution.

The Conference program lists a plethora of topic areas that those of us working with the technology - from mutual funds to accounting procedures - can benefit from hearing, including An Overview of XBRL Adoption around the World by XBRL International CEO Tony Fragnito and International Standards Board Strategy from the ISB's Ray Lam. As for, breakout sessions, we will be very interested to hear what comes out of the discussion on XBRL Technology and Best Practices.

In addition to this, later this year, XBRL US, the nonprofit consortium for XML business reporting, will hold its annual conference in Nashville, Tennessee to cover how public companies can use XBRL for reporting and communicating to investors and regulators, as well as practical educational sessions on implementing XBRL for SEC reporting. Highlights of the conference will include a keynote from Frank Brod, Chief Accounting Officer, Microsoft Corporation, as well as tutorials on SEC and non-SEC uses for XBRL; and industry-specific case studies.

We all know that we have budgetary margins that are razor thin, but also remember that educational opportunities can be the first step in improving company revenue.

----- 

Merrill Corporation is proud to offer XBRL Complete, a suite of services that meets - and has options to exceed – the mandated requirements for XBRL for mutual funds. For more information, please click here or call 866-367-9110.

This Week in XBRL - IFRS Foundation, Foreign Private Issuers and XBRL Accounts,

In a continued effort to educate on the development of XBRL technology in industries such as financial services (and beyond), Merrill Corporation will share articles and columns published on the topic.

Because Merrill enjoys columns that promote activities we focus on as a company, our favorite XBRL story of the week was on promoting XBRL Accounts, as well as the organizations that have an expertise in the technology (such as Merrill, who created the  XBRL Complete platform and has an in-house team of experts). We thought the best part was this excerpt:

While iXBRL and XBRL accounts are unknown words for many companies there is no need to lose any sleep over it. There are some highly professional organizations that have started working on these languages and they have been providing professional consulting to some of the best companies in the world already. These professional consultants help companies outsource their financial report preparation and also help them prepare the reports in-house. 

However, there were also two interesting, industry-focused pieces, both of which involved the International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS). The first focused on the SEC ruling that foreign private users that use the IFRS to file in XBRL may be provided with additional time beyond June 1 because of the lack of specifics provided regarding the taxonomy that should be followed. The SEC sent a letter to the Center for Audit Quality in this regard, which can be viewed here. We will be very interested in seeing that the official ruling ends up being.

The other IFRS / XBRL-related news concerned the IFRS Foundation announcing it will be publishing supplementary tags for the IFRS Taxonomy. These "common-practice tags" will improve the ability to compare information by enabling entities to create IFRS financial statements with fewer entity-specific taxonomy tags. These new tags will be developed by the IFRS through the analysis of more than 200 financial statements, including statements of financial position, comprehensive income, cash flows and changes in equity, and block-tagged notes and accounting policies—that have been prepared in accordance with IFRS by entities across geographical areas and industries, and including financial institutions and insurance companies. They will be published as a draft supplement to the IFRS Taxonomy 2011. This information is just the latest example of how important consistently-improving taxonomy will play in the growth, adoption and understanding of XBRL by companies large and small. Very few - if any - financial services and IT experts have suggested that it is anything but essential.

-----

Merrill Corporation is proud to offer XBRL Complete, a suite of services that meets - and has options to exceed – the mandated requirements for XBRL for mutual funds. For more information, please click here or call 866-367-9110.

This Week in XBRL

In a continued effort to educate on the development of XBRL technology in industries such as financial services (and beyond), Merrill Corporation will share articles and columns published on the topic.

In the ongoing coverage of the recovery process Japan is going through as a nation, Homeland Security Specialist W. David Stephenson offered his thoughts on how Japan can begin building themselves back up:

Fast forward to today, which I suggest offers a perfect situation for Japan to again pioneer in a management innovation. In this case the distinction would be to become the first nation to create a framework for a seamless flow of information within and between both government and industry.

The key tool to achieving this breakthrough is the eXtensible Business Reporting Language, XBRL, a global standard, free tool for sharing data by attaching "tags" to it that give it context and meaning. For example, the number 1600 by itself could denote anything from the White House's address to calories in a recipe. However, when bracketed with the XBRL tag "quantity," (1600) its meaning is immediately apparent. Even better, once tagged, data can automatically flow anywhere you choose where those same tags are present: within your company, to a trading partner for supply chain integration, and to a government agency.

On a different aspect of the topic, with approximately 120 days left before the XBRL deadline, the IR Web Report recently published 4 main criteria for selecting an XBRL preparation solution (a solution like Merrill's XBRL Complete). The criteria is as follows (and should be weighted differently according to your company priorities):

1. Time Commitment - "The time spent on the XBRL may vary significantly, and will be split between internal and external resources."
2. Price - Every vendor will quote a price, but what is included in that price? Is it the price just for the software or does it include the consulting time (and which does your company need)?
3. How much XBRL do you actually want to learn? - In line with the "Time Commitment" component, vendors should be able to provide an idea of how much XBRL knowledge you need to know as a company vs. how much can be supplied by the experts on a need-to-know basis.
4. Vendor experience with XBRL - "In 2009, approximately 500 companies submitted XBRL to the SEC for the first time; in 2010, an additional 1000 did so. In the second year of XBRL filing for each of these companies, there was the additional burden of “detailed tagging” their financial statements to contend with. This year there are projected to be an additional 8700 companies providing XBRL for the first time."

-----

Merrill Corporation is proud to offer XBRL Complete, a suite of services that meets - and has options to exceed – the mandated requirements for XBRL for mutual funds. For more information, please click here or call 866-367-9110.