In the latter half of 2011, the predominant topic of discussion in the XBRL world was whether or not the language would be picked up for use in federal expense reporting. The main arguments in favor of its adoption centered on the transparency and simplicity of such reports.
We’re barely two months into 2012, and these headlines are popping up again, albeit in a more positive light.
After widespread support in 2011, Congress has proposed a handful of bills calling for the use of XBRL in government finance reporting. While none of these bills have become legal mandates, yet, the federal government has already begun tagging expense data with XBRL. Perhaps the most interesting angle of this story, though, is what these efforts suggest for the near future.
In a recent AccountingWeb interview, IMAXBRL chair Brad Monterio had this to say:
"There is no reason that the benefits of XBRL should be limited to public companies and external compliance reporting," Monterio said. "XBRL streamlines and automates information sharing. It is platform independent. It helps bridge the gap between systems in an organization. Data from different systems within the organization can be viewed and analyzed more easily through XBRL.
"Companies of any size and not-for profits of any size can realize real efficiencies and major cost savings through data sharing internally where information is presented in an XBRL format.
Monterio was also quick to point out that the reporting system has already seen wide success in state governments, and even on a nationwide level in some European and Asian countries. It seems that the high benefits of XBRL reporting are starting to make an impression on a global scale, and we are excited to see how high our favorite language can go.
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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