MACPA Launches Transparency and Best Practices Organization

In an effort to bring an organized source for best practices in financial reporting, the Maryland Association of CPA’s has formed the Center for Transparency, Performance Management and Accountability. The Center hopes to elevate the innovation and development of structured financial reporting.

Structured financial data is already being used successfully to increase transparency and reduce costs at the SEC, FDIC, Oregon, Nevada and by governments around the world. The Maryland Association of CPAs has pioneered its own application of XBRL internally and is now working with the Financial Accounting Standards Board (FASB) on an XBRL taxonomy for Not-for-Profits. The MACPA also provided its case study to Chairman Issa and Congress in support of the DATA Act.

The Center recently held their first collaboration session, seeking to answer problems such as performance management, and the transparency of Government Financial Reporting. MACPA will be holding a two-hour XBRL Thought Leader Symposium on Tuesday, June 26, 2012. City Biz List has moreinformation.

[A] group of global experts will present updates on all of the key areas where XBRL and structured data are making a difference in areas like government reporting, healthcare, financial accounting standards, and innovative performance management applications…

…Then on June 27th, Innovative uses of XBRL will be presented as part of MACPA's Innovation Summit at Martin's West featuring the following sessions:

• Open Government: Transparency & Accountability in Federal & State Government - W. David Stephenson moderating panel with Hudson Hollister of the Data Transparency Coalition & MD Senator Bill Ferguson

• Healthcare Data - What You Need to Know - Jim St. Clair of HIMSS (Healthcare & Information Systems Society)

• Transparency & Financial Reporting: The View from FASB - Louis Matherne of FASB

• Performance Management for Government, NFPs & Small Business - Skip Falatko, Thomas Hood, Bill Bunch

• Worldwide Developments in XBRL, XBRL GL & SBR - Eric E. Cohen - PWC & Gianluca Garbellotto - IPHIX

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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: Major Changes on the Horizon for EDGAR Taxonomy

The SEC announced earlier this month that, effective July 2^nd, they will no longer support the 2009 US GAAP Taxonomy. This change will line up with SEC’s Release 12.1 of the EDGAR Online System. The Ohio Society of CPA’s has more info.

In addition [to the removal of 2009’s US GAAP Taxonomy], the new version of EDGAR will no longer support:

    U.S. GAAP Taxonomy 1.0.

    U.S. Financial Reporting Taxonomy Framework 2005.

    U.S. Schedule of Investments Taxonomy 2008.

    Risk Return Taxonomy 2008.

    Risk Return Taxonomy 2006.

Filings using these taxonomies will no longer be accepted in the EDGAR system.

As always, the SEC suggests that all companies use the most recent taxonomies for their online filings. You can get a full list of supported taxonomies here, and you can check out the SEC’s current draft for the 12.1 EDGAR Filer Manual 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.

What Makes ActiveVu a Valuable Product?

Merrill Corporation’s ActiveVu hosts a long list of features that add efficiency and accessibility to your documents. We’ve already mentioned the software’s integration with the MerrillConnect platform, but there is even more that ActiveVu has to offer.

ActiveVu is 100% web-based.

There are obvious profit advantages to relying on digital distribution. You lower print cost, and you avoid the environmental effects of large volume print communication. However, in the past, digital distribution has been somewhat unfriendly to less technical users. That’s where ActiveVu is different.

Unlike traditional PDF files, your members will never need to download additional software to view ActiveVu documents. They can pull documents up directly in their browsers, on home computers, tablets, and smart phones. Even better, ActiveVu is browser-agnostic, meaning it functions equally in HTML 5 and Flash, so both Apple and PC users can access data without needing to switch browsers.

ActiveVu uses rich media that users can share.

Explaining the complexities of financial reporting through printed documents can be difficult, if not impossible. ActiveVu allows you to take digital documentation to the next level, adding video, audio, animations, and imagery to any document. More complex files can also include bookmarking, keyboard search, and interactive TOC.

This rich media can help you create communications that your customers will want to share, and through ActiveVu’s built-in dissemination tools, they can. Customers can share ActiveVu documents through email, or even directly through social media networks such as Twitter, Facebook, and LinkedIn.

Merrill Corporation is re-defining member communication, and you can be one of the early adopters in this new field of digital distribution. Click the links below to find out how.

  

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We’d love to chat with you about how ActiveVu can improve your business communications! For more information, please contact us at 866.367.9110 or contactMCS@merrillcorp.com

What is ActiveVu?

Merrill ActiveVu is a new, integrated software module for the MerrillConnect portal that transforms standard PDF files into an interactive, on-screen, page-turning experience. As an integrated MerrillConnect software module, the composition, personalization, and compliance features of MerrillConnect are all inherent in the ActiveVu document.

ActiveVu allows your company to be greener, and more mobile, by converting any multi-page PDF document into an engaging digital document. There is no need to print, and these documents are automated for instant delivery to any web-enabled device for instant viewing by your customers anytime and anywhere there is an internet connection. These documents are further enhanced through active URLs, which allow you to link to videos, external websites, documents, and more.

Your customers will appreciate ActiveVu documents as well. ActiveVu documents are smaller, and load faster than traditional multi-page PDF files. They are built with intuitive navigation that does not require them to learn new software to move quickly through content. ActiveVu is shareable, and can be easily emailed, or shared via social networks.



ActiveVu has been designed as the perfect customizable solution for all of your one-to-one or one-to-many communications. With 15 template features, all of which can be turned on and off as needed, ActiveVu can handle nearly any document style or need.

  

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We’d love to chat with you about how ActiveVu can improve your business communications! For more information, please contact us at 866.367.9110 or contactMCS@merrillcorp.com

Introducing Merrill ActiveVu

As a leading global provider of technology-enabled services for the financial, healthcare, real estate, legal and other corporate markets, we’re excited to announce the launch of ActiveVu!

ActiveVu is a new, integrated software module for the MerrillConnect portal that transforms standard PDF files into an interactive, on-screen, page-turning experience.

Why you’ll love ActiveVu (and how it will make your life easier!):

Green & Mobile

• ActiveVu can transform any multi-page PDF document into an engaging digital document, which will help you achieve your goals to be greener and more mobile.

Automated Instant Delivery

• Automates your documents for instant delivery to any web-enabled device for instant viewing by your members anytime and anywhere there is an internet connection.

Confidence that ActiveVu, through MerrillConnect, will provide:

• User provisioning for secure content authorization across the business to ensure that viewers see only the content they are authorized to see
• Superior item revisioning capability to ensure only up-to-date content is delivered
• A single document library
• Easy item administration and complete inventory management

Over the next few weeks, we’ll be sharing more about ActiveVu! In the meantime, see ActiveVu in action!

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We’d love to chat with you about how ActiveVu can improve your business communications! For more information, please contact us at 866.367.9110 or contactMCS@merrillcorp.com