This Week in XBRL: Could XBRL be the Next Superhero?

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.

Still frames of the next Batman movie have made its way on to the internet, but instead of Alfred or Robin, should the Cape Crusader think outside the box as far as a new sidekick? This was our first thought was when reading this recent article on using XBRL as a way to better identify and solve crime in the future.  

In an intriguing piece of out India, the question came up of whether the government should seriously consider converting crime records into XBRL to avoid logistical and administrative occurrences associated with warrants, statutes of limitations, etc. This of course would make police work more efficient and prosecution more effective. The story lists a number of examples of international incidents that could have been handled differently because, "...moving the information to XBRL is about much more than merely creating a database of crime records. The XML nature of XBRL makes it machine readable; what comes over and above is the prescription of data standards which spells out how data will be captured fully."

Over the past couple weeks, we have written about the different aspects of XBRL from a financial services industry perspective, but as we know as communications experts, for something like XBRL to become better adopted and perceived, it has to have a stronger mainstream hook. Creating a message around preventing or solving crime is always well received, and would help in promoting the other uses of XBRL. We at Merrill aren't crime fighters by trade, but we like the concept this story presents.

So, while the exploits of The Penguin and Mr. Freeze may necessitate the capabilities of the Batmobile more than a software language, the idea that this evolving technology can play a role in public safety only adds to its credibility.


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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: XBRL Jurisdictions

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.

The XBRL 22 Conference in Brussels ended this week, and one of the pieces of news coming out was the announcement that Switzerland is the next XBRL Jurisdiction.

XBRL International is the worldwide non-profit organization that is compiled of approximately 650 companies and agencies to build and promote the XBRL language and popularity. The mechanism they use to accomplish this are local jurisdictions which, according to their mission statement, "represent countries, regions or international bodies and focus on the progress of XBRL in their areas as well as contributing to international development. Members join through their local jurisdiction, except in areas where no jurisdiction has yet been formed, when they can join XBRL through a special direct membership category."

The consortium members meet periodically in international conferences, conduct committee work regularly via conference calls, and communicate in email and phone calls throughout the week.

For more information on XBRL jurisdictions, click here.

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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: Lessons Learned by the SEC

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.

This week, Accounting Today provided an excellent summary of the SEC's phase-in approach with the XBRL mandate and some of the lessons learned. It is a topic we have covered a number of times on this blog, but this is a quick, concise refresher:

• Data Quality – At the core of the XBRL tagging process, selecting the best tags to represent the information in your financial statements is the most critical part of the process. Carefully selecting the best tags is likely to be the greatest contributor to the quality of an XBRL submission. Some tips on how to select the best tags can be found in the Interpretive Guidance section.
• Viewing Submissions – The SEC’s free previewer allows filers to view their submission before filing to see what it will look like on the SEC’s website. However, this rendering of the XBRL submission will NOT exactly visually match the corresponding HTML submission, and there is no requirement for it to do so. Filers should NOT make changes to their tagged data solely to achieve a particular visual effect. The previewer may be one of the tools used to help verify the completeness of the XBRL submission, but relying solely on the rendered document to review the tagged data will not identify all of the details necessary to assess potential filing errors. The filer’s software vendor or service provider may be able to provide reports that will help review these other aspects of your submission, including validation results.
• Validation – Although selecting the correct tags is the most critical aspect of the process, if the XBRL submission is not technically valid it will not be accepted by the EDGAR system. The SEC said filers should consider using the validation tools from their vendor and the SEC test filing mechanism to make sure their submission is technically valid before filing.

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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: The ICI Conference (from our view at Booth 303)

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.

A couple weeks ago, we shared some insight on upcoming conferences in which XBRL was the star. This week, we wanted to make a quick plug for a conference that, while XBRL isn't the main attraction, is one that we are proud to be attending, look forward to each year, and expect to both learn and network on a number of topics (including XBRL): The Investment Company Institute's 2011 General Membership Meeting.
 

From an XBRL perspective, we believe that Friday's breakfast session with SEC Chairman Mary Schapiro should offer some interesting insight into how the conversion process is going. Additionally, because of our presence on Facebook, Twitter and, of course, this blog, the Thursday afternoon session on social media should be an intriguing discussion on best practices.

Come visit the Merrill Corp team at Booth 303

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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.