This Week in XBRL: “We’ll Make it Better, the Second Time Around”

For filing publicly-held companies, XBRL has become an unavoidable part of financial reporting. Filers have had varying opinions ofthe tagging language, but the real question is whether or not XBRL has actually succeeded in simplifying the reporting process. Seeking the answer to that question, FERF asked members of Financial Executives International to report on the language’s ease of use during their second filings. The FERF survey found responses from 321 executives at 300 different companies.

Here are some of the survey’s answers, as compiled by CFOWorld and a FERF press release.

• 85% of large accelerated filers found their second use of the language to be “somewhat or significantly easier” than their first.
• 90% of Tier 3 filers and 72% of large accelerated filers reported that XBRL slowed their process by one or less than one day.
• 6% of the largest filing companies use outside help during peak reporting, and 22% of the smallest companies do so.
• XBRL was considered the ‘biggest bottleneck in reporting function’ by 4% of small companies, and 45% of large companies. Alternatively, 26% of small companies felt that the review process was the biggest bottleneck, where only 16% of large companies agreed.
• 40% of Tier 1 and Tier 2 companies felt that XBRL had some significant impact on their ability to report efficiently.
• Of those, the majority felt that XBRL tagging and slow turnaround from XBRL printing/service providers held them back considerably.

So there is good news and bad news from FERF’s survey. Nearly half of reporting companies still see XBRL as a major hindrance to their financial reporting, and many are having problems with their outsourcing solutions.

More optimistically, nearly every company agrees that XBRL is getting easier to use. More importantly, Merrill Corporation is still here to help. As financial experts, and masters of XBRL, we have solutions in place to simplify, accelerate, and analyze your XBRL tagging process. We have been working on the cutting edge of XBRL reporting since 2009, in partnership with XBRL US and the Consortium of Filing Agents and Software Developers. Contact us for more information on XBRL Solutions.

Title adapted from lyrics for ‘Step by Step’ written by Jesse Fredrick and Bennet Salvay.

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