It’s that time of year again: snow is falling, the wind is crisp, and corporations are asking tough questions about the future of finance reporting. XBRL has been at the top-of-mind for many finance industry analysts, and that means a lot of great news and discussion for the language. Here are some of the highlights.
XBRL As a Boon, Not a Burden.
As Ben Cole, at Tech Target, points out, the coming of XBRL wasn’t celebrated by everyone. “If you were to ask filers, some might say the fact that the SEC is mandating XBRL-tagged filings is a hardship, as they have the burden of the costs for compliance,” he says in this week’s article, How the SEC's XBRL Tagging Mandates Can Help Your Bottom Line. He interviewed XBRL supporter David A. Frankel, who responded by pointing out the intrinsic benefits of XBRL, including a greater understanding of your company’s risks, and the power to take better, more profitable risks in the future. Click here to read the full interview.
Finding Larger Uses for XBRL.
“Since the SEC issued the Interactive Data Mandate in 2009, the focus for companies has been to conquer the learning curve and simply become compliant,” says Accounting Today’s John Swirsding. “…understanding where XBRL goes from here presents companies with a number of new opportunities and risks.”
Swirsding believes that public and private companies can make use of XBRL in three key ways that will lead to a larger, global infrastructure, which he compares to the growth of the internet over the past thirty years. The areas Swirsding sees as the next frontier for XBRL are Legislation, Liability, and Leverage. By utilizing the infrastructures already in place, he argues, companies can reap huge benefits from systems they are already required to know.
FASB Talks XBRL.
At the National Conference on Current SEC and PCAOB Developments on December 6, FASB Chairman Leslie Seidman spoke about international accounting standards and private company reporting.
These are two of the most important issues facing our profession, our capital markets, and our companies, so I think it’s important for us to have a frank, constructive discussion of them… The reason we have accounting standards is to provide information that is useful to existing and potential investors and other users of financial reports in making decisions about whether to provide resources to the company or nonprofit organization.
Seidman explained his views on the two topics, and how reporting structures like XBRL are transforming the world of business and finance. The full transcript of Seidman’s address is here, and is well worth reading.
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.
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