iBR

Vol 02 • Issue 03 • August 2012

page 36MaCpa:XBRl & BusINess INTellIGeNCe

page 40paving the Way for XBrL IN FINlANd

page 15the Data aCt: A sINGle dATA PlATFoRM

GREG ZEGAROWSKI, uRs

gLoBaL engineering LeaDer: BuIldINGeFFICIeNCYWITH XBRl

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Contents Vol 02 • Issue 03 • August 2012

44 XBrL anD eUrostat: euRoPeAN BusINess:

BeTTeR dATA FoR NATIoNAl sTATIsTICAl INsTITuTes

49 foCUs oN AsIA singapore:3Rd XBRl

AsIA RouNdTABle ANd sINGAPoRe XBRl NATIoNAl CoNFeReNCe 2012

50 singapore: XBRl IN sINGAPoRe

By lau shih Hor, elixir

Technology and Khadija

Mackenzie, Crimsonlogic

52 oUt oF oFFICe By Greg Zegarowski, uRs

neWsthe iMpaCt of sBr on sMe LenDing IN THe NeTHeRlANds

foCUs on eUropefinLanD: PAVING THe WAY FoR XBRl IN FINlANd

PAGe

12

PAGe

40

4 Cover sToRY XBrL BuIldING eFFICIeNCY By Greg Zegarowski, uRs

8 neWs Using XBrL To

ACHIeVe GRouP-WIde CoNsIsTeNCY

By Chris Bates, Federal Home

loan Bank of Cincinnati

11 sMooth saiLing WITH XBRl By Marty Hall, Helix

12 the iMpaCt of sBr on sMe LenDing IN THe NeTHeRlANds

By Arnold esser, ING

15 regULation the Data aCt: CReATING A

sINGle dATA PlATFoRM By Hudson Hollister, data

Transparency Coalition

18 insiDe sToRY proMoting XBrL for

Cross-BorDer Data eXChange BY BusINess ReGIsTeRs IN euRoPe

By Thomas Verdin, THeIA

Partners, Gilles Maguet, XBRl

europe, and susan Thomas, sAP

Research

22 oUt in the open: oPeN souRCe XBRl

By Walter Hamscher, seC and

Herman Fischer, Mark V systems

26 sUpervising MoDeLs: XBRl ANd dATA PoINT ModellING

By Michal Piechocki, Business

Reporting – Advisory Group

30 opinion stanDarDs DeveLopMent

IN XBRl By Philip Allen, CoreFiling

34 UpDate XBrL24 – sTRuCTuRed dATA

IN THe uAe By surya subramanian, emirates

National Bank of dubai

36 foCUs oN AMeRICAs XBrL anD BusINess

INTellIGeNCe By skip Falatko and Thomas

Hood, The Maryland Association

of CPAs (MACPA)

40 foCUs oN euRoPe finLanD: PAVING THe WAY

FoR XBRl IN FINlANd By esko Penttinen, Aalto

university, elina Koskentalo, TIeKe

The Finnish Information society

development Centre

BusINess oPPoRTuNITIes in XBRl-BAsed seRVICe PRoVIsIoN

By Jyrki Poteri, Tieto Finland oy

and Johanna Kotipelto, The

Finnish Tax Administration

Vol 02 • Issue 03 • August 2012|1

FRoM THe eDitor’s Desk

iBR EdItORIAl AdvISORy BOARdAmi Beers – AICPA, united statesNoemi di segni – XBRl ItalyCarsten Felden – Technische universität Bergakademie Freiberg, GermanyPoul Kjaer – danish Bankers Association, denmarkMakoto Koizumi – Fujitsu, JapanGargi Ray – Infosys, IndiaMichelle savage – XBRl us, united statesdave Nitchman – XBRl International

puBlIShERSky team International (hK) ltd18/F, 8 Queen’s Road Central, Hong KongtEl +852 2921 9367FAx +852 3007 0249

pROjEct dIREctOR Rebecca Trant

OpERAtIOnS dIREctOR Tammy Fung

dESIGn & lAyOut leAP design Associates

SpOnSORShIp And AdvERtISInG [email protected]

GEnERAl InquIRIES [email protected]

puBlIShER’S nOtEThe opinions expressed in this publication

are not necessarily those of the publishers

or of the institutions of the contributing

author. Although care has been taken to

ensure the accuracy of the information

contained within the publication, neither the

publishers, authors nor their employers can

be held liable for any inaccuracies, errors

or omissions; nor held liable for any actions

taken on the basis of the views expressed, of

information provided within this publication.

No part of this publication covered by the

publisher’s copyright may be reproduced,

stored in a retrieval system or transmitted,

in any form or by any means, be they

graphic, electronic or mechanical,

including photocoping, without the

written permission of the publisher. Any

unauthorised use of this publication will

result in immediate legal proceedings.

All Rights Reserved © 2012

IN AN eRA INCReAsINGlY CHARATeRIsed BY GReATeR PRessuRe oN THe RATe oF ReGulAToRY eVoluTIoN IN THe FINANCIAl seRVICes seCToR, IT Is ReFResHING To WITNess ReGulAToRs ANd INdusTRY IN THe BusINess RePoRTING AReNA, TAKING sToCK oF eARlIeR XBRl MANdATes. THe CoNVeRsATIoNs ANd dIsCussIoNs ARe MATuRING ARouNd THe INITIAl IMPACT oF XBRl, To FoCus oN WIdeR IMPlICATIoNs ANd eFFICIeNCY IMPRoVeMeNTs. A BRoAd sPeCTRuM oF Issues ANd RelATed INdusTRY PeRsPeCTIVes ARe RePReseNTed IN THe PAGes THAT FolloW, All oF WHICH INdICATes AN INdusTRY HeAlTHY WITH BoTH THouGHT leAdeRsHIP ANd eXPeRIeNCe sHARING.

A central tenet of the iBR initiative is to illustrate business reporting and the use of XBRl by the filing community, and therefore in this issue we offer our readers a cross section of authoritative perspectives, from diverse sectors, including construction engineering (uRs Inc. on page 4), marine energy solutions (Helix esG on page 11) and financial services (Federal Home loan Bank of Cincinnati on page 8). other than the external (and internal) benefits to organizations deploying XBRl strategies, it is interesting to see the growing number of initiatives that are enabled through XBRl and how they benefit new segments of industry. From europe, ING’s Arnold esser explains the impact of standard Business Reporting on sMe lending in The Netherlands, while in June 2012, the Maryland Association of Certified Public Accountants (MACPA) launched a collaborative community to explore uses of structured financial data to help decrease costs, increase efficiency and ultimately lead to better management, (page 36). The breadth of editorial contribution and sponsor collaboration in this latest issue of iBR, indicates to us on the iBR team, that what we are offering to you, our industry readers, is what you want, (although we still ask for more of your comments), and this is in the context of diverse regulatory jurisdictions, business drivers and competitive pressures. After all, that is what makes it so worthwhile.

eDitor’s MessAGe

2| Vol 02 • Issue 03 • August 2012

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XBrL BuIldING eFFICIeNCYBy GReG ZeGARoWsKI, uRs

GReG ZeGARoWsKI oF leAdING eNGINeeRING ANd eNVIRoNMeNTAl CoNsulTANT, uRs, dIsCusses THe IMPACT oF XBRl oN NoN-eXTeRNAl RePoRTING FuNCTIoNs, THe VAlue oF INCoRPoRATING XBRl INTo INTeRNAl RePoRTING PRoCesses ANd THe Need To eMBed BesT PRACTICe soluTIoN INTo soFTWARe PRoduCTs.

Cover sToRY

hoW has strUCtUreD Data ChangeD the roLe of the Cpa? Accountants have always been inspired to bring order out of chaos and structured data fits nicely into that mission. structured data is not new if you

think about relational databases. What is new with XBRl is the extent to which the data is becoming portable and meaningful across platforms and spoken languages. These beneficial outcomes of XBRl are the result of standardized agreement on


XBrL BuIldING eFFICIeNCY

A growth area for XBRl will be tagging data at deeper levels, such as at the consolidation or transactional level. The XBRl Global ledger taxonomy has been developed to facilitate reporting enhancements and representing data at these levels.

is aLL of the XBrL proCess CarrieD oUt in hoUse or is soMe oUt-soUrCeD? uRs was one of the early adopters of an integrated approach for meeting its seC XBRl reporting requirements. We selected IBM Cognos FsR, software that aids in the preparation of the traditional 10-Q and 10-K documents and the building of our extended taxonomy and tagging the financial statements. other vendors offer competing

products in this space. An increasing number of companies that outsourced the XBRl process previously are now considering or implementing in-house solutions. We anticipate that more companies will be considering integrated approaches in the future.

Though our XBRl process is carried out entirely in-house, we have benefited from selected consulting services. For companies just starting their XBRl reporting journey, there can be distinct value in working with vendors who can assist with the initial set-up of the XBRl documents.

hoW iMportant is eXternaL assUranCe for XBrL fiLings to yoU? It is uncertain when the seC may require audits of XBRl filings, but we have taken seriously the existing seC rule that XBRl submissions are subject to normal disclosure controls and procedures. To that end, we have developed well-documented preparation and review procedures for our quarterly and annual submissions. In addition, we have found value in having our auditors from PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC) perform quarterly agreed upon procedures (AuPs) on our XBRl documents. such engagements can help a company identify areas for improvement to their XBRl files, including the incorporation of recognized best practices.

“A growth area for XBRl will be tagging data at deeper levels, such as at the consolidation or

transactional level.”

the key features of business information. XBRl can be likened to a logical rather than physical data warehousing approach.

The near-term challenge for CPAs is learning about the robust taxonomies that have already been created, such as those for us Generally Accepted Accounting Principles (GAAP) and International Financial Reporting standards (IFRs). over the next decade, the number of taxonomies – covering a diverse range of topics like sustainability reporting – will increase. This will create new opportunities for CPAs to help steer that development. CPAs will have to become more information technology savvy in order to ensure the accuracy of their XBRl documents.

The amount of data that CPAs handle is growing exponentially, especially with the increase of social media and mobile communication. We simply have more data to deal with (sometimes too much). We now talk about ‘big data’. It will be incumbent upon CPAs and other information specialists to make sense of the vast volume of data to which we now have access.

hoW MUCh of an iMpaCt has XBrL haD on fUnCtions other than eXternaL reporting? By far, the biggest impact of XBRl to date has been on external reporting. However, as XBRl data repositories at the securities and exchange Commission (seC) continue to grow, there will be a greater impact on internal reporting and data analysis. Analysts in government agencies, buy-side/sell-side firms, rating agencies and corporate strategic planning departments will have more timely access to key corporate performance data.

For companies like uRs, reporting in XBRl to the seC already requires the input of multiple departments or functions, including external reporting, legal, investor relations and IT. some companies are leveraging their XBRl structured data to enhance their investor relations web sites. others are using their tagged data to find efficiencies in reporting to multiple agencies.


Cover sToRY

As the seC’s XBRl mandate becomes fully implemented and as analysts and investors rely on tagged data more routinely, there will be more pressure to have the files subject to audit. This will present challenges to both preparers and auditors. one challenge already facing boards and audit committees is how to gain relative assurance over XBRl filings. We have found the exposure draft Proposed Principles and Criteria for XBRl-Formatted Information issued in 2011 by the AICPA Assurance services executive Committee helpful in designing our own disclosure controls and procedures. The exposure draft covers key aspects of preparing XBRl files, including completeness, mapping, accuracy and structure.

What vaLUe Do yoU see in inCorporating XBrL into yoUr internaL proCesses? Within our company there is a continual drive to find efficiencies in collecting and organizing information. With multiple business units, there is an ongoing effort to consolidate data from disparate systems.

XBRl can be part of the overall solution. up front work is required and, like any project, we will have to weigh the costs and benefits for possible future uses of XBRl.

one of the misconceptions about XBRl is that it only applies to financial data that may appear,

XBrL BuIldING eFFICIeNCY

for example, on a balance sheet. In fact, XBRl can be used to represent operational and transactional data, as well as certain non-financial data. It is a business reporting language, not just a financial reporting language.

one near-term application of XBRl for many companies could be leveraging the tagged quarterly and annual financial data to populate reports to other government agencies. There are numerous applications of XBRl that have yet to be envisioned. I think that once XBRl knowledge becomes more widespread, people and

companies will be developing unique solutions to their data ‘pain points’.

are there any tooLs or soLUtions that yoU WoULD Like to see offereD for XBrL?Many seC filers will be looking for more best-practice documents issued by the FAsB, seC, XBRl-us, AICPA and others. Historically, accountants have used publications such as the AICPA’s Accounting Trends and Techniques to bench mark disclosures. With XBRl, we are at such a nascent time in its development there is the oft-heard question, “How is everyone else doing this?” extensive best practice documents and tools will help answer that question.

Ideally, access to best practice solutions would be embedded directly in the software products used by companies. In that way, companies could check their work at multiple points during the XBRl development process.

any finaL thoUghts?I would encourage preparers to get involved with their local XBRl jurisdictions, such as XBRl-us, and to become active in the standard setting process by, for example, providing comments to the FAsB on taxonomy development. It is a golden opportunity to help design the future of financial (and business) reporting.

GReG ZeGARoWsKI, uRs


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neWs

Using XBrL To ACHIeVe

GRouP-WIde CoNsIsTeNCY

CHRIs BATes FRoM THe FedeRAl HoMe loAN BANK oF CINCINNATI dIsCusses THe BANK’s XBRl IMPleMeNTATIoN sTRATeGY ANd HoW BeING PART oF A lARGeR GRouP FACIlITATes PeR useR CollABoRATIoN.

By CHRIs BATes, Federal Home loan Bank of Cincinnati

the XBrL iMpLeMentation strategyThe Federal Home loan Bank (FHlBank) of Cincinnati’s XBRl implementation strategy has been in-house using the WebFilings tool. We felt this approach was the best choice for us given that FHlBank is responsible for filing with the securities and exchange Commission (seC). Bringing the process in-house has increased our awareness of XBRl, specifically understanding the basic terminology, the actual taxonomy, table structures and calculation assertions. The decision to have an in-house process was also influenced by the fact that it gave us more control over the process and timing. With our current process we can make changes up until the day of filing.

Initially, we got up to speed on XBRl by listening to webcasts, reading articles, talking with vendors, referring to the edGAR Filing Manual and most importantly carefully reading and considering the XBRl us Preparers Guide. We were able to tag the year 1 information ourselves, with just minor support from the vendor, who assisted in our initial detailed footnote tagging, which helped us to master table designs.

our implementation also recognized the need for a certain level of consistency among the 12 banks in the FHlBank system. each FHlBank operates as a separate entity with its own management, employees and board of directors. Although the banks are separate entities, we have a forum to communicate


Using XBrL To ACHIeVe GRouP-WIde CoNsIsTeNCY

CoLLaBoration With inDUstry peers From the start of the XBRl implementation, we talked regularly with the other FHlBanks. Being in the position to collaborate with peer users has greatly aided our own implementation. For example, one of the FHlBanks brought an issue to attention that introduced us to the XBRl us Best Practice guidelines, which clarified a change being considered. Although most filers do not benefit from this degree of support, it could be replicated using tools and forums to share their experiences and learn from others.

soLUtions proviDing vaLUeThe WebFilings solution and the XBRl us Consistency suite tool have provided us with the greatest value to date. These compliance tools are valuable given

the technical requirements inherent within XBRl file creation. The WebFilings tool allows us to see the details of tagging and provides many built-in checks and reports to assist with our reviews. We use the Consistency suite tool primarily as another layer of validation checks before we file. The Consistency suite tool has helped us identify a handful of items over the past year that ultimately helped us improve our filing.

We have also found the support we receive from XBRl us for the tool to be helpful.

Going forward, we would like to see more tools available that make the use of XBRl data easier. Whether it is to gather financial information about other filers or to be able to create reports to provide trends about our own financial data, further opportunities exist to improve our other reporting processes.

neXt steps for XBrL at fhLBankWe plan to work with the other FHlBanks to further improve the consistency in tagging across the 12 FHlBanks, especially the detailed tagging of notes. We also plan to work with the Financial Accounting

with each other. With this implementation, the FHlBank system formed a working group with an underlying goal of consistency. For level 1 tagging, the working group created a taxonomy guide that provided the suggested line item tags for the standard financial statements. The working group has held many conference calls to discuss these tags, and each FHlBank uses this guide as a reference point for their level 1 tagging.

inCorporating XBrL into internaL proCessAlthough incorporating XBRl into our process has been a good learning opportunity, it has been challenging and time consuming. In our case, it has been particularly time consuming due to the extra steps of trying to gain a level of consistency across the FHlBank system and due to the unique nature of our company. Beyond that, we have been able to successfully integrate the XBRl reporting process into our close cycle in a way that most of the maintenance effort is completed before period-end, while the detailed review process generally takes place once the immediate rush of the first few weeks after period-end is over.

DeLivering vaLUeIncorporating XBRl into our process has provided value through the overall efficiencies and the added controls it provides in the completion of our seC filings. specifically, the use of the XBRl calculation assertions adds a valuable control. The built-in process we use also helps improve our understanding of XBRl and will certainly enhance our future ability to potentially leverage XBRl for other uses.

The negative aspect of the XBRl investment has been that we haven’t always been able to show the results of our efforts to others within our company. My expectation is that as more tools become available, XBRl data can more easily be used by management to provide quick access to financial information on both our company and peers.

“Going forward, we would like to see more tools

available that make the use of XBRl data easier. Whether

it is to gather financial information about other

filers or to be able to create reports.”


Using XBrL To ACHIeVe GRouP-WIde CoNsIsTeNCYneWs

standards Board (FAsB) to add more FHlBank system specific elements to the taxonomy.

While we have achieved a good level of consistency in our level 1 tagging, we would like to keep working to gain greater consistency in the level 2–4 tagging. We have a level 1 Taxonomy Guide, have a level 3 Guide drafted and hope to implement similar guides for other disclosures.

one other goal we sought early in our consistency process was to have commonly used FHlBank extensions considered for the us GAAP Taxonomy. We started this a few years ago with XBRl us and continue today with the FAsB, and both organizations have been very receptive to working with us.

opportUnities anD ChaLLenges faCing XBrLThe FHlBank is required to provide financial information to multiple sources. In addition to our seC requirements, we regularly provide information to our regulator and the office of Finance. The office of

© 2012 Deloitte The Netherlands

Reducing Reporting ComplexityUnlocking the value of XBRL

Deloitte provides XBRL services on:

Data Collection & AnalysisMore accurate, more comprehensive results

Reporting & Disclosure ManagementExcellence in reporting

Taxonomy Design & ManagementStandardising business reporting

Business Case DevelopmentBringing value to the full reporting chain

XBRL AssuranceProviding comfort on the quality of your XBRL filings

For more information please contact Dave van den Ende at [email protected], +31 88 288 0208 or visit our website www.xbrlplus.com.

Finance, part of the FHlBank system, is responsible for aggregating data from the 12 FHlBanks for publication in a combined financial report. XBRl may one day provide an opportunity to deliver financial information to these other parties in an even more efficient way.

The key challenges are to achieve consistent tagging and to have powerful tools that allow users and even all levels of management to see how the XBRl can be used. We have had extensive discussions surrounding what entails consistent tagging of data – whether it is using all of the same details in a table down to the axis, table and abstract tags, or just using similar tags that would roll-up to the same general information in an end-user tool.

Additionally, the lack of tools available limits, to a degree, our ability to ensure others see value in the XBRl effort. ultimately, having good reporting tools available will help others see the value of XBRl rather than just implementing another compliance requirement.

sMooth saiLing WITH XBRl

neWs

MARTY HAll FRoM leAdING MARINe CoNTRACToR ANd oPeRAToR HelIX, dIsCusses HoW THe Need To sTReAMlINe seC FIlING PRoCeduRes CAN Be AN oPPoRTuNITY To GAIN eFFICIeNCY, eNsuRe ACCuRACY ANd CoNTRol TIMING.

streaMLining the fiLing proCessIncreasingly harder to physically maintain and scale, many public companies struggle to improve their seC filing procedures. After evaluating our own external reporting process, we sought to take what was traditionally a purely compliance exercise, and turn it into an opportunity to gain efficiency, ensure accuracy and control timing. like most public companies, Helix prepared filing documents by manually entering data from various spreadsheets, combining email and PdF documents, and by copying and pasting from various enterprise resource planning (eRP) and business process management (BPM) solutions. Most companies have historically treated XBRl as a bolt-on compliance exercise at the end of the seC reporting process. As such, they usually outsource this process and as a result only received legal compliance out of it, which is a waste of time and money. We saw the business opportunity to partner with an XBRl software vendor that would help automate internal processes, providing more accurate and timely data to the seC, all while cutting audit costs.

finDing an XBrL soLUtion to aUtoMate eXternaL reporting proCessesThe Helix external reporting team initiated a search for an XBRl solution to automate external reporting processes. The team also wanted a solution intuitive to existing process – something that felt less like a foreign compliance exercise and more like the day-to-day routine. during an assessment that included multiple systems and vendors, Helix chose a solution from Rivet software for its ease of use, and because data could be moved directly from the company’s eRP solution into

the new platform, where tagging and validation are easily applied and verified. We were extremely eager to implement the solution’s data connector, which allows us to interface our oracle eRP accounting system with the XBRl software.

aChieving Cost savings throUgh XBrLWith just a single 10-Q filing under our belts, we can already see the benefit of the new process and software. The data connector between our oracle eRP and the new platform worked seamlessly. This process alone saves my team considerable time as normally we would have to hand type all of the financial data into our periodic reports. Now it populates instantly and accurately. Furthermore, adjustments – a necessary evil for every accounting

department – are now updated instantly throughout the document in real-time. over time, we believe our use of this solution will not only continue to streamline our external reporting process, but will provide us cost savings in the form of reduced external audit fees and enhanced utilization of our current staff, as they won’t have to chase items throughout our periodic reports.

MARTY HAll, HelIX

“We saw the business opportunity to partner with an XBRl software

vendor that would help automate internal

processes, providing more accurate and

timely data to the seC, all while cutting audit costs.”


By ARNold esseR, ING

the iMpaCt of sBr on sMe LenDing IN THe

NeTHeRlANdsING’s ARNold esseR dIsCusses THe IMPACT oF sTANdARd BusINess RePoRTING oN sMAll ANd MedIuM eNTeRPRIse leNdING IN THe NeTHeRlANds ANd THe GReATeR BeNeFITs XBRl WIll CReATe FoR CoMPANIes ANd GoVeRNMeNTs.

overvieWstandard Business Reporting (sBR) was initiated by the dutch government in 2004 to reduce the administrative burden on businesses. The aim of the programme was to facilitate four main information streams for small and medium enterprises (sMe), three of which fall under the domain of the government: tax filing for small, medium-sized and larger companies; delivery of annual accounts to the Chamber of Commerce; and the delivery of information to the Central Bureau of statistics. The fourth stream is the provision of financial information to banks that can be used to evaluate whether or not banks can provide credit, supporting both new loan applications and credit revisions for existing loans.

The dutch government wanted to use XBRl to establish a standardized automatic process to replace the existing manual processes. It was also felt that if changes were made to the software available to companies and intermediaries, XBRl could be used for multiple purposes, creating greater benefits for the ultimate users – government and companies.

The three main banks, ING, ABN Amro and Rabobank, joined the programme in 2009 and have developed their own infrastructure. They are all active in the corporate lending market and have joined together to form a company that facilitates the infrastructure needed for receiving annual accounts at the banks.

neWs

ING and the other two banks are participating on different levels in the government programme, which is still very much under development. While the infrastructure is available and banks are able to receive reports, they are working to increase volumes and aim to have at least 80-90% of all the required information delivered automatically. To achieve this, banks and several government departments are working together with software companies, accountants and fiscal advisors with all parties playing a role in compiling and delivering data.

The intention is to use standardized conventions in terms of specifications of reports and to facilitate the filling in of reports so that they can be downloaded from the general ledger of a company. each company has its own filing and book keeping systems and the ultimate goal is to achieve 100% straight through processing.

souRCe: ING, deloITTe ANd XBRl

EvOlutIOn OF thE SBR pROGRAmmE In thE nEthERlAndS

sBr programme dec 2009establishment of

joint venture(frC)

mar 2011 go live Bt2011

Feb 2012 go live Bt2012

ntp

pilot banksrabobankaBn-aMro

Sep 2009 roadmap banks including ing

nov 2009 formal agreement

government & banks

Apr 2010 go live delivery

to banksbased on Bt2010

nov 2010 Launch ing

project

may 2011 government decides sBr

becomes mandatory for all corporate income tax filings

per 1-1-‘13

2004 2008 2009 2011 2012 2013 20142010


the iMpaCt of sBr on sMe LenDing IN THe NeTHeRlANds

deloitte has been acting as a preferred consultant to ING for a long time, which has given deloitte in-depth knowledge of ING’s products, processes and systems. When ING decided that they wanted to implement sBR, it was a natural step for ING to approach deloitte for support. The initiation process had a broad scope and deloitte was able to provide support on a number of different aspects of the process such as developing the business case, setting up a project approach and organizing work streams relating to the architecture, process design and IT. Also, communication was an important factor both within the organization and between the various participants in the banking programme. Finally, there was the implementation both internally at ING and also in terms of implementing a pilot scheme. ING implemented sBR in a short period of time. At the end of summer 2009, the three main banks in the Netherlands agreed with the government that sBR be would be implemented by April 2010. This meant that much work had to be completed over a period of just seven months to build a taxonomy, develop the process infrastructure and set up communications systems.

MarCeL van DonkersgoeD FRoM deloITTe CoNsulTING eXPlAINs HoW ING GoT sTARTed WITH sBR

As such, anything that can be done to get a better picture of a company’s credit worthiness can be crucial for providing the right amount of credit to customers, and XBRl allows banks to get a much clearer picture.

The taxonomies developed by the three banks allow them to specify in advance exactly what they need from companies in order to make swift decisions. While the information in the taxonomy is a bit more extensive than most annual reports, there are also elements in annual reports that are not needed. This means that banks can fine-tune the required information depending on the size and type of company and the purpose of the loan.

the iMpaCt of sBr on CoMpaniesone main aim of the programme was to reduce the time between the end of the book year and when that information is provided to banks. When moving from paper to digital records, it is vital to ensure that data submitted provides banks with the information they need to make well-informed credit decisions. In terms of data quality, reports received by banks from different companies have different elements and definitions. While banks can manually type data into their own systems to create a degree of uniformity, there is still the problem that data is not always comparable.

XBRl solves this problem by providing banks with comparable data that can be incorporated into their systems and easily consolidated, thereby facilitating more accurate analysis. This allows banks to identify companies that are deviating from industry averages (for example, in terms of borrowing needs or profitability) as they can compare data on a much larger scale than

the iMpaCt of sBr on Corporate LenDingIn small countries like the Netherlands, which has approximately 800,000 sMes, providing credit to sMes is crucial for the economy. during periods of economic growth, ample credit is available. However, when economic conditions deteriorate, as has been seen in the past few years, banks become more cautious about providing credit, and access to reliable and accurate information on the performance of companies is extremely important in order to keep the bank lines open. In addition, in a more rigorous regulatory environment, as seen now under Basel III, conditions imposed on banks to set capital aside for their lending portfolios become more stringent.

ARNold esseR, ING, PRoGRAMMe dIReCToR sBR


was previously possible. This also supports the development of risk analysis and pricing models, leading to greater use of risk-based pricing, which is an important assumption underlying the Basel III framework for the capital requirements that are imposed on banks for running lending portfolios.

the ing projeCtWhile ING works closely with Rabobank and ABN Amro on the provision of the sBR infrastructure, at the same time, each bank needs to maintain its own marketing strategy and its own positioning within the market.

ING wanted to communicate to companies that if they submitted their annual reports to the bank using XBRl then the processing time between the credit application and receiving an offer from the bank for a new loan would be reduced.

If companies provide their annual reports to ING using XBRl, ING guarantees that for each credit application up to €500,000, the company will receive an answer from the bank within four working days. For credit applications up to €1 million, the processing time will be within ten working days.

As it was not possible to offer this to all ING customers with immediate effect, the bank began with a scheme in a controlled environment. The bank worked with several partners, including deloitte, to start processing credit applications.

However, one stumbling block is that some software companies are not ready yet to support this. In May 2011, the government decided that by 1 January 2013 all tax filings on corporate income must be submitted using XBRl, leading many software providers to focus on tax filing rather than banking taxonomies. As such, further progress on banking reports is expected to be made later in 2012 and early in 2013.

neWs the iMpaCt of sBr on sMe LenDing IN THe NeTHeRlANds

integrateD testingIn october 2011, ING and the other two banks started integrated testing involving all stakeholders. Tests were carried out with several accountant firms and software companies for two or three months. In January 2012, the first phase with four entities was concluded. The three banks have now certified four entities that have proven they are capable of providing credit reports to the banks. In June 2012, the second phase was concluded resulting in additional certification for 16 entities.

While implementation of XBRl in the Netherlands is a complicated process, all parties involved believe that significant cost savings can be achieved if this information flow is established. once the electronic devices are developed and working properly, the cost of reporting for companies will be reduced significantly. In addition, it will also have a positive impact on credit lending to sMes and will streamline government processing for combining data for statistical purposes and tax filings.

InG pROjEct AImS tO REducE RESpOnSE tImE OF cREdIt ApplIcAtIOnS

souRCe: ING, deloITTe ANd XBRl

Response time InG

1. receive credit

application a financial

report

2a. Collect

information 2B. information complete

3.analyse credit

application

4a.approve

application & rating

5.prepare proposal

6.process & release4B.

Confirmed to client

• New loan applications up to €500k using SBR will be processed within 4 working days • New loan applications up to €1 million using SBR will be processed within 10 working days

deloitte is a strong supporter of XBRl and is committed to helping customers like ING become sBR ready, seeing sBR as something all banks, accountants and enterprises should – and inevitably will – implement. XBRl should be integrated within the core process, impacting the entire chain, making it faster and more efficient for all parties involved, reducing paper usage, achieving higher quality reporting, and building in more objectivity in the data provided. ultimately, XBRl will provide significant benefits for end users, particularly in terms of speed of processing times.

DeLoitte anD ing sHARING A VIsIoN oN THe RePoRTING CHAIN

MARCel VAN doNKeRsGoed, deloITTe CoNsulTING


the Data aCt:

CReATING A sINGle

dATA PlATFoRM

HudsoN HollIsTeR oF THe dATA TRANsPAReNCY CoAlITIoN dIsCusses HoW THe dATA ACT CAN IMPRoVe GoVeRNMeNT RePoRTING, THe IMPACT THIs WIll HAVe oN CITIZeNs ANd HoW else XBRl ANd dATA sTANdARdIZATIoN MIGHT Be used BY FedeRAl oR sTATe GoVeRNMeNTs.

the ChiLD anD faMiLy serviCes innovation anD iMproveMent aCt reqUires the Use of stanDarDizeD reporting for feDeraL ChiLD WeLfare eXpenDitUres. Why Was stanDarDizeD reporting neCessary here?Before the Child and Family services Innovation and Improvement Act, states used PdF forms to submit information to the federal government on how federal child welfare funds were spent. This meant there was no way – short of manually rekeying everything – to compare one state’s

performance to another or to track a single state’s child welfare programs across time. standardized reporting will allow comparability with almost no additional effort.

hoW WiLL the Data aCt iMprove reporting of governMent spenDing? What are the Most signifiCant oUtCoMes Citizens WiLL notiCe?The u.s. federal government currently tracks its spending in a manner that prevents searches, analyses and accountability. every federal

By HudsoN HollIsTeR, data Transparency Coalition

regULation


agency reports on its budget execution to the office of Management and Budget (oMB), which is part of the White House, and separately submits its expenditures to the department of the Treasury, which cuts the checks. since oMB uses a three-digit code to identify agencies and the Treasury uses a two-digit code, and there is no agreement between oMB’s budget line items and the Treasury’s account numbers, these two data compilations cannot be reconciled or searched together. To make matters worse, federal agencies report other spending data, such as details of grants and contracts, to three other databases maintained by two additional government units. Meanwhile, the recipients of u.s. federal grants and contracts report some information to the General services Administration and other information to the Recovery Board. In case you’re keeping track, I’ve mentioned seven separate data compilations so far. each of these compilations uses formats and identifiers that make it incompatible with the others.

The dATA Act sets up a single platform for agencies’ budget and expenditure data, the Treasury’s master expenditure database and the recipients’ accountability reports. This doesn’t mean that oMB, the Treasury and the others must

immediately get rid of their existing systems – that would make implementation very difficult. Instead, it requires the agencies to submit the same information to the new single platform that they are already submitting to the six existing ones. This new platform will make the information interoperable by applying a consistent tagging structure – identifiers and markup language. Meanwhile, the recipients will be required to file

their accountability reports directly with the single platform using the same tagging structure. Finally, everything submitted to the single platform will be published online for everyone to see (with some details withheld for national security and privacy reasons).

The dATA Act will dramatically improve citizens’ ability to hold the u.s. federal government to account

for the way it is spending their money. First, there is currently no way for u.s. citizens to view the government’s internal expenses; the only government-wide spending transparency websites just provide external grants and contracts. The dATA Act will change all that. For the first time, citizens will have a complete view that covers both external grants and contracts and internal expenses. second, the government currently has no consistent identifiers for basic concepts. That means, for example, that when

foCUs on AMeRICA: uNITed sTATes the Data aCt: CReATING A sINGle dATA PlATFoRM

How well did you reviewyour SEC filings?

“The dATA Act will dramatically improve

citizens’ ability to hold the u.s. federal

government to account for the way it is spending their

money.”


you search the existing grants database for the top ten recipients of housing grants, New York City’s housing authority shows up several times, spelled in different ways. The dATA Act will apply consistent, government-wide identifiers for agencies, programs, projects, recipients, grants and contracts. Citizens will be able to pull up a particular recipient and see all the federal funds it received, or select a particular program and view its internal and external spending. Third, the dATA Act’s single platform will take in information from both agencies and the grantees and contractors that receive federal funds, which means agencies’ data and recipients’ data can be checked against one another to improve accuracy.

All the data on the dATA Act’s platform will be published in bulk. Tech companies and entrepreneurs – including, we hope, the members of the data Transparency Coalition – will invent new ways to use u.s. federal spending data to solve problems and make better decisions. are there other areas Where the Uses of XBrL anD Data stanDarDization are Being eXpLoreD Within feDeraL or state governMents?our Coalition is planning on pursuing a comprehensive campaign for u.s. federal data reform by asking Congress to consider legislative proposals for standardized identifiers and markup languages in several other areas: financial filings, non-financial regulatory reporting and internal

the Data aCt: CReATING A sINGle dATA PlATFoRM

MAGNIFY™

Focusing on validationsince 1997

federal data. This can only happen if our Coalition attracts the members and funding required to continue operations beyond the dATA Act.

I should add that neither the dATA Act nor these future proposals directly require XBRl, or any other markup language. Instead, they provide that the government must adopt some standardized markup language, and set some basic characteristics that markup language must have. It would not make sense to enshrine a particular technology, even a non-proprietary one like XBRl, permanently in the u.s. code. However, for financial information there is simply no other option but XBRl.

Who is invoLveD in the proCess of appLying a Data stanDarD Like XBrL to governMent reporting? is this an internaL governMent projeCt or is it a pUBLiC-private projeCt?every proposal we have discussed requires some government entity to designate a markup language for whatever reporting requirement is in question. Most of these proposals require the government entity to determine whether there is already an accepted data standard in use by private industry. That means some sort of consultation process. Most of these proposals also require a public notice and comment procedure. However, the details of applying consistent markup languages to government reporting always depend on which government reporting scenario we are talking about.

insiDe sToRY

proMoting XBrL for

Cross-BorDer Data

eXChange BY BusINess

ReGIsTeRs IN euRoPe

THoMAs VeRdIN oF THeIA PARTNeRs, susAN THoMAs oF sAP ReseARCH ANd GIlles MAGueT oF XBRl euRoPe eXAMINe HoW THe xeBR CoRe ReFeReNCe TAXoNoMY CAN Be used To CoNNeCT euRoPeAN XBRl TAXoNoMIes ANd suPPoRT CRoss-BoRdeR INTeRCoNNeCTIoN.

By THoMAs VeRdIN, THeIA Partners, GIlles MAGueT, XBRl europe, and susAN THoMAs, sAP Research

The XBRl europe Business Registers (xeBR) Core Reference Taxonomy offers a common technical and semantic layer for connecting the diverse XBRl taxonomies of the national business registers in europe. Thus, it supports cross-border interconnection of the type promoted in the new european directives, which are intended to develop a harmonized framework for the international exchange of data about european companies. Additional comparability features for XBRl, as they are currently being developed by the Abstract Modeling Task Force, may also open new opportunities to create not only a common layer but a real interactive data network. However, despite its obvious benefits, adoption of XBRl technology to implement these new directives is not assured.

eUropean Diversityeven if the new european directives (amongst which are the draft Transparency directive [2011/0307 (Cod)] and the Accounting directive [2011/0308 (Cod)] currently being reviewed by the european Parliament) organize a more harmonized framework for company data exchanges in europe, each member state has its own rules for registering companies, publishing bylaws and annual financial statements as well as any other official documents. National accounting bodies and business registers have therefore defined local taxonomies including company identity and annual accounts, for the filing and publishing of XBRl instance documents containing the legal, economic and financial data of the registered companies. They also provide local websites and jurisdiction-specific processes to access the data and fulfill each legal formality. This diversity impedes data utilization. For example, it


of the european-funded MoNNeT project, who worked on its semantic consistency. Moreover, it benefits from concrete initiatives like the interconnection agreement that was signed by the French, Italian and spanish Registers in Venice in March 2012. After the european Parliament voted on 16 June to approve a directive regarding the interconnection of central, commercial and

companies registers [2012/17/eu], XBRl and xeBR were put forward as a technical solution for cross-border data exchanges between the registers in europe, which should be promoted in the process of writing the delegated acts of this directive. (They have to be produced before July 2015 and will define the technical framework for the business registers’ interconnection). However,

lobbying the european Parliament is hard work and it is still not certain that XBRl will be adopted as the common technology for interoperability.

of course, many other attempts have been made and other technologies considered by the commercial registers or the data providers to identify and describe the most commonly used concepts in company profiles and financial statements in europe,

proMoting XBrL for Cross-BorDer Data eXChange BY BusINess ReGIsTeRs IN euRoPe

makes it extremely difficult for non-French speaking persons who in addition have no knowledge of the French accounting principles, to analyze the approximately one million company accounts filed annually in France.

eUropean interConneCtion in spite of Diversitysince 2009, the XBRl europe Business Registers Working Group (xeBR WG) has been actively working towards a more interconnected network for initiatives related to the XBRl standard for Business Registers. The WG defined a common taxonomy, known as the xeBR Core Reference Taxonomy, which includes the main concepts that exist in most of the local taxonomies: assets and liabilities, and their most usual breakdowns; company name and address; and information on officials and key events in the company history. The taxonomy, which has been improved over the last three years, takes into account the results of analysis by experts of the national practices, many discussions with commercial registers and data providers, and a comparison with the BACH scheme developed by the european Committee of Central Balance-sheet data offices. It has also been reviewed by the experts

susAN THoMAs, sAP ReseARCH GIlles MAGueT, XBRl euRoPeTHoMAs VeRdIN, THeIA PARTNeRs

“since 2009, the XBRl europe Business Registers Working

Group (xeBR WG) has been actively working towards a

more interconnected network for initiatives related to the XBRl standard for Business

Registers.”


to try to organize the cross-border exchange of this information. However, the XBRl standard offers a particularly powerful characteristic that can make all the difference. Matching XBRl tags not only connects concepts shared across borders (the list of concepts common to all countries is ultimately not so long, and becomes shorter each time you interconnect with an additional country), but also brings together the functional intelligence contained in the linkbases related to those concepts. While linking the core accounting and registration concepts, XBRl allows you to keep their specific breakdowns, calculation rules or labels that are described in the local taxonomies. This is a real advantage for rendering on a screen the complete financial statements of companies from various countries, and displaying the corresponding tables (or even lines) beside each other to facilitate understanding and comparison of the data.

a CoMMon LayerThe xeBR Core Reference Taxonomy has been built as the central pivot to link the core concepts from the local taxonomies. Work is continuing to complete the matching process by also defining direct links between similar concepts in a restricted number of countries. For example, Italy, spain and France use common structures in their financial statements that are not shared with the north european schemes or with the international accounting principles (IFRs). All these taxonomies are today connected to the Core Reference Taxonomy. An additional set of matching links will be prepared, with the help of the MoNNeT project, for similar detailed concepts in the more comparable taxonomies.

As they are now well-identified, these links between XBRl tags need to be described in an intelligent way. using the XBRl syntax is of course the best solution. With this in mind, the xeBR WG has

prepared two concrete use cases. one is about calculating cross-border ratios based on similar concepts from instance documents of two or more companies, using various local business registers’ taxonomies; it uses the formulae to express the matching links. The other use case displays cross-border statements by regrouping similar concepts, knowing that these statements may use various taxonomies; it is based on additional presentation linkbases to create the matching points. XBRl is likely to do it better in the future: for those two use cases, a comparability linkbase (or set of comparability assertions) would be the ideal solution. The work being done by the

Abstract Modeling Task Force (XBRl International) on comparability promises additional features for XBRl that will help create those comparability assertions.

CoMparaBiLity assertionsFor a complete XBRl interconnection of business registers' taxonomies, the technology should allow for the creation of semantic assertions to link concepts, and to describe the nature of those links. The use of semantic technologies as practiced by the MoNNeT experts may give

us some ideas. These technologies enabled the easy calculation of assertions for two taxonomies matched to xeBR, by using the xeBR taxonomy as a pivot. These assertions can also be expressed using the XBRl syntax.

Based on the on-going projects mentioned in this article, the xeBR Core Reference Taxonomy (which was once just a simple common layer for matching technical data), is progressively becoming a complete set of comparability rules and semantic links. With a few additional technical features and political willingness, this could create an interactive network for the data collected by the european business registers.

“While linking the core accounting and registration concepts,

XBRl allows you to keep their specific breakdowns, calculation rules or labels that are described in the

local taxonomies.”

insiDe sToRY


proMoting XBrL for Cross-BorDer Data eXChange BY BusINess ReGIsTeRs IN euRoPe

THe MoNNeT PRoJeCT1 ANd ITs use oF THe xeBR TAXoNoMYMoNNeT, a research project funded by the european Commission, of which XBRl europe is a consortium member, is developing code to aid both the translation and the interconnection of XBRl taxonomies. It uses statistical machine translation, semantic, terminological and linguistic analysis to compute suggested translations of XBRl labels from one language into another. It uses the labels in multiple languages, the concepts and their relationships to compute suggestions of similar concepts between a pair of taxonomies. The work is based on semantic web technologies because of their ability to express the meaning of data and taxonomies in a way that is easy to extend, process and link to other information.

using the xeBR taxonomy and its mappings to other taxonomies, such as the spanish and Belgian taxonomies, the project was able to create an application that allows a user to compare XBRl data from two companies from different countries. The XBRl instances and taxonomies, the xeBR taxonomy and its mappings are all converted to the semantic web format RdF, and are loaded into an RdF store so that all the taxonomies and data, including the mappings, can be accessed easily and manipulated using the powerful semantic web query language sPARQl.

XBRl europe has assessed that there are more than 50 XBRl country implemented projects in 19 european countries across sectors including banking, insurance, securities, business registers and tax. each year, between five and seven million XBRl financial statements are available in europe where, apart from the banking and insurance sectors, no specific cross-border unified project for the exchange of information between countries exists. XBRl europe created its Business Registers Working Group in september 2008 to tackle this problem. The working group aims to improve coordination and increase interoperability

of business registers’ efforts in europe to facilitate cross-border production and use of XBRl documents containing information on european companies.

XBRl euRoPe ANd THe xeBR WoRKING GRouP2

XBRl europe, an affiliate of XBRl International, is an international non-profit organization based in Brussels. It was set up to foster european XBRl efforts and to implement XBRl projects in europe between its members3 through dedicated working groups, and to liaise with european Authorities and professional federations. More than 200 organizations are participating in XBRl europe. In addition, the european Commission (dG Internal Market), european Banking Authority (eBA), european Insurance and occupational Pensions Authority (eIoPA) and european securities Market Authority (esMA) are regular observers at XBRl europe events and working groups.

XBRl europe organizes regular events and working group sessions. Recently, it has co-organized the 22nd XBRl International Conference in Brussels (May 2011), the eIoPA solvency II seminar in Tallinn (April 2012), and the XBRl week in Madrid (June 2012) hosted by the Bank of spain and the spanish Business Register, in association with eurofiling, the eBA and eIoPA.

1 MoNNeT Is FuNded BY THe euRoPeAN CoMMuNITY's seVeNTH FRAMeWoRK PRoGRAM (FP7/2007-2013) uNdeR GRANT AGReeMeNT 248458. HTTP://WWW.MoNNeT-PRoJeCT.eu/

2 XBRl euRoPe HTTP://WWW.XBRl-eu.oRG/ 3 MeMBeRs oF XBRl euRoPe INClude XBRl BelGIuM, XBRl deNMARK, XBRl

GeRMANY, XBRl FRANCe, XBRl ITAlY, XBRl luXeMBouRG, XBRl NeTHeRlANds, XBRl sPAIN ANd XBRl INTeRNATIoNAl. THeRe ARe Also dIReCT MeMBeRs suCH As THe euRoPeAN FedeRATIoN oF FINANCIAl ANAlYsT soCIeTIes.


insiDe sToRY

oUt in the open: oPeN

souRCe XBRl

By WAlTeR HAMsCHeR, seC and HeRMAN FIsCHeR, Mark V systems


oUt in the open: oPeN souRCe XBRl

All of the seC’s electronic disclosure rules are evaluated for their economic impact as part of the rule writing and approval process, and the cost to the registrants of those changes in reporting is often considered in that evaluation. In practice, over the lifetime of any electronic reporting, competitive markets cause reporting costs to drop in an absolute sense while reporting benefits to investors rise as more information becomes machine-readable at a reduced cost. Therefore, I welcome anything that contributes to a reduction in costs and an increase in benefits. electronic disclosure requires software both for reporting and for consumption; therefore whatever trends occur in the software industry are going to apply in that arena as well.

software is subject to rapid commoditization. New software functions that are novel, innovative and costly today, over the course of just a few years, can become so widely implemented and offered to the market in so many ways that their implementation cost asymptotically approaches zero. open source licensing of software is a manifestation of that dynamic of the software industry. Regulators, regulated entities, and data users all benefit from the emergence of software interoperability standards and open source licensing of implementations to support those standards. open source is bound to emerge at every level of the entire stack of software needed to support reporting and consumption of reports. There are even open source accounting packages!

With all that as context, the emergence of open source software that facilitates consumption of complex financial information delivered as XBRl is no different from open source implementations of operating systems, web servers, or XMl parsers: I welcome them all. I do think that open source implementation of basic functions for consuming XBRl financial reports that help programmers to reshape and reorganize XBRl numerical

data and tagged text into their own analysis framework is of exceptional benefit right now. That’s because XBRl data is now reaching full coverage of all seC registrant operating companies and mutual funds, and the more we have and the more we study it, the more it reveals. People with the software tools to do that investigation are going to get great value from it; open source accelerates the availability of those tools.

WAlTeR HAMsCHeR, seC’s oFFICe

“open source is bound to emerge at every

level of the entire stack of software needed to support reporting and

consumption of reports. There are even open

source accounting packages!”

WAlTeR HAMsCHeR oF THe seC’s oFFICe oF INTeRACTIVe dIsClosuRe sHARes HIs THouGHTs oN HoW oPeN souRCe sTANdARds CoMPleMeNT ReGulAToRY RePoRTING ANd WHeRe THese Tools WIll HAVe THe MosT IMPACT.


insiDe sToRY oUt in the open: oPeN souRCe XBRl

HeRMAN FIsCHeR oF MARK V sYsTeMs ouTlINes THe RATIoNAle FoR BeGINNING THe ARelle oPeN souRCe PRoJeCT, ANd dIsCusses ITs PoTeNTIAl APPlICATIoNs.

offer. Four years ago, we began to examine options that would enable us to build a platform that did not require those countries to purchase anything but would still meet their technical needs.

our initial end users were small countries and small agencies in big countries that struggle to get sufficient funding for enterprise-level solutions. Now we see applications in the us, where Arelle is deployed for validation in parallel across a number of different products. Validation for seC filings was the starting point for this stream in the us, while in europe Arelle was promoted as a tool for formula processing. We have put a lot of effort into getting the efficiency up to a competitive level. early on, Arelle had a number of uses for XBRl versioning, for example, building reports

of their yearly cycles, creating a table link base, and in some small eastern europe locations, using the table link base as a data entry tool.

fUtUre UsageWe are looking at using Arelle with taxonomy and formula editing, although these options will only be secondary, as the current commercial offerings are adequate. Abstract modeling is an issue that started with the XsB strategic modeling task, and we are currently developing a second generation of the abstract model, a computer warehouse meta-model. The abstract modeling effort will hopefully lead to solutions

for comparing us GAAP and IFRs dimensions. using Arelle for abstract modeling will move XBRl away from a regulatory perspective and by leveraging technology from the object Management Group, it will encourage consumption of XBRl. We had to start somewhere, but now that we have a few years of filings, we need to be able to crunch them.

I would love to use Arelle to build a bridge between IFRs and us GAAP and support an open source equivalent with the necessary features to consume submissions. With Arelle, you have a search tool, but it is not the same as putting it into your BI tool and searching through thousands of items in parallel. What is really exciting about it is not formula or taxonomy editing, but the ability to foster the next stage of XBRl, which is consumption.

BaCk storystandards that have open source components last longer. The Ada programming language, initially developed for the us department of defense, had its shining moment, but it eventually faded away. A significant reason for this is that it was never pushed into the open source arena. In November 2009, the XBRl standards Board (XsB) began to look at strategic planning for XBRl’s near-term future. An intensive effort with face-to-face meetings, presentations, distillation and reports led to a survey in March of 2010, and results presented in April at the 2010 XBRl20 conference in Rome.The most common requests were for tutorials and abstract models, which XII is working on, but participants also wanted an open source initiative to further entrench XBRl as a standard. My involvement

began at the suggestion of diane Mueller, early XBRl promoter, who thought it would be something I could contribute to. Two years later, Arelle is rolling along with good momentum and enthusiasm.

aDoptionlooking back, the majority of use cases for Arelle involve support to those consuming XBRl tagged data from smaller countries that cannot afford the high end, high license fee software suites that enable analysis of structured data. A few years ago, at the eurofiling technical meetings, we started to work with countries which told us that despite having smart people and sufficient labor to deploy the necessary analytical technologies, they did not have the budget to purchase the commercial systems on

“The abstract modeling effort will hopefully lead to solutions for comparing us GAAP and IFRs dimensions.”

HeRMAN FIsCHeR, MARK V sYsTeMs


6-8 November 2012 yokohama

In business reporting, there is no more important task than finding the most efficient and accurate way to manage, process and analyse the reams of information available. In other words, there is no more important mission than staying up to speed with XBRL.

To The NexT LeveL of BusiNess RepoRTiNg. ANd BeyoNd. Join us this November at the 25th XBRL International Conference for the latest insight into how the newest generation of XBRL is revolutionizing business reporting and why this tool is more indispensable today than ever.

At this vital conference, you will hear from the brightest minds in the industry and network with forward-thinking colleagues. Plus, implementation case studies provide attendees with practical knowledge and tips that can be employed today.

Fuel up For The FuTure

This November in Yokohama, you will learn about:

• XBRL Implementation Strategies

• Innovative Uses of XBRL

• Insights From XBRL Experts

• XBRL Reporting Taxonomies

• And more!

The speed of business is accelerating. The volume of information is mounting.And the role of XBRL is more critical than ever.

XBRL INTL xxv

To RegisTeR foR xBRL iNTL xxv, The 25th iNTeRNATioNALCoNfeReNCe, visiT xBRL.oRg/iNTL or call +1 407 250 6786.

6-8 November 2012 yokohama

In business reporting, there is no more important task than finding the most efficient and accurate way to manage, process and analyse the reams of information available. In other words, there is no more important mission than staying up to speed with XBRL.

To The NexT LeveL of BusiNess RepoRTiNg. ANd BeyoNd. Join us this November at the 25th XBRL International Conference for the latest insight into how the newest generation of XBRL is revolutionizing business reporting and why this tool is more indispensable today than ever.

At this vital conference, you will hear from the brightest minds in the industry and network with forward-thinking colleagues. Plus, implementation case studies provide attendees with practical knowledge and tips that can be employed today.

Fuel up For The FuTure

This November in Yokohama, you will learn about:

• XBRL Implementation Strategies

• Innovative Uses of XBRL

• Insights From XBRL Experts

• XBRL Reporting Taxonomies

• And more!

The speed of business is accelerating. The volume of information is mounting.And the role of XBRL is more critical than ever.

XBRL INTL xxv

To RegisTeR foR xBRL iNTL xxv, The 25th iNTeRNATioNALCoNfeReNCe, visiT xBRL.oRg/iNTL or call +1 407 250 6786.

insiDe sToRY

sUpervising MoDeLs: XBRl ANd dATA PoINT

ModellING

MICHAl PIeCHoCKI oF THe BusINess RePoRTING – AdVIsoRY GRouP dIsCusses THe ReVoluTIoN IN dATA ModellING HIGHlIGHTING HoW THe INTRoduCTIoN oF XBRl PAVes THe WAY FoR THe dATA PoINT Model FoR eNHANCed suPeRVIsoRY RePoRTING.

By MICHAl PIeCHoCKI, Business Reporting – Advisory Group


sUpervising MoDeLs: XBRl ANd dATA PoINT ModellING

In 1974 Niklaus Wirth, a Professor of Informatics at eTH Zurich, coined a famous statement that:

AlGORIthmS + dAtA StRuctuRES = pROGRAmS

Back then, data structures were seen as one of the key components of future operational applications of IT.

regULators Love forMsFast forward almost 40 years and we find ourselves in an information technology age where data structures’ considerations evolved rapidly into distributed, ontological and semantic networks, big data issues, data transformed into knowledge and information in every area of life, not to mention its

application for the globalised financial world. For instance, globalisation paved the way for

financial markets to introduce standards for electronic data collection, processing

and analysis. However, if you look closely you may notice a strange gap between

how data structures are developed by market participants and how they are

created for informational purposes in banking, insurance and capital markets supervision. A common factor in the development of data requirements and transformation of those requirements into information technology taxonomies is apparent: regulators love forms.

even in the digital age, forms are regularly used by central banks, financial supervisory authorities, securities, insurance and

pension funds commissions and other regulators as

a means of fulfilling their appetite for

information. Furthermore, forms

(or templates) are most

commonly used as a visualisation mechanism for information collection systems. This is primarily due to the fact that tables are considered the easiest and most user-friendly, graphical way of communicating what should be reported on two-dimensional carriers (like screens, paper or PdF documents). Another reason may be that what needs to be reported is defined by business experts, who are accustomed to more traditional means and tools. Whilst form-centric communication of supervisory information requirements may be thought the simplest, it is actually causing challenges including (but not limited to) inconsistencies of definitions and duplications across forms, further analysis of multidimensional data and data dictionary maintenance and change management.

neW approaCh: Data point MoDeLIn late 2008 there was a move away from the form-centric approach, when the eurofiling Group1 embarked on development of a new methodology for definition of supervisory information models, called the data Point Model (dPM).

As Ignacio Boixo, a long-term coordinator of the eurofiling Group notes: “Back then the eurofiling Group was successfully promoting the former CoReP (Basel II) and FINReP (Financial Reporting) XBRl taxonomies and we realised that a new approach was required. drawing from collective european Banking supervisors’ experiences and specifically from the Matrix schema approach used for years by the Bank of Italy, together with the Business Reporting – Advisory Group (BR-AG), we decided to develop a new FINReP taxonomy following a data-centric paradigm and tried to identify every single business characteristic applicable to FINReP templates.”

during 2009 Michal skopowski and Bartosz ochocki, co-authors of the dPM methodology, continued with two parallel activities:1. Identifying the business approach to

documentation and resolution of sometimes

1 THe euRoFIlING GRouP Is AN oPeN, JoINT INITIATIVe oF THe XBRl

oPeRATIoNAl NeTWoRK oF THe euRoPeAN BANKING AuTHoRITY,

WWW.euRoFIlING.INFo


insiDe sToRY

conflicting definitions across FINReP templates, and

2. Analysing requirements of and the impact on the XBRl taxonomies’ architecture supporting the new approach.

Michal skopowski says, “The key challenge was to analyse the underlying business assumptions and translating implicit business understanding of the templates into a precise, logical, explicit and unambiguous data model. We needed processes, tools, assumptions and most importantly continuous discussion with a broad, multi-stakeholder business experts group to cross-check our findings.”

The technological front also experienced challenges. According to Bartosz ochocki: “The dimensions 1.0 specification enabled a mechanism to describe multi-dimensional breakdowns; however, few projects before tried to include such a number of dimensions in one combination. our goal was also to create a methodology that would be technology-neutral. All that posed challenges – especially in the context of solutions allowing users to test the new approach.” However, eventually in late 2009 the new taxonomy was published for comments and the dPM methodology caught the attention of supervisors worldwide.

In essence the dPM methodology is an approach of defining a logical, explicit, unambiguous and precise data model, based on information requirements expressed in templates and supervisory legal acts. Firstly, the business experts, authors of templates and legal regulations, are asked to identify the general purpose of each table or disclosure paragraph. Next, they define the characteristics of each and every cell on the template or principle from the standard. subsequently these characteristics are organised into consistent and logical breakdowns. Finally, the breakdowns are analysed, duplicates and ambiguities are resolved and they are combined back to reportable items or data points.

The three layers of dPM: (i) dictionary, (ii) functional and (iii) visualisation correspond with

XBRl taxonomies: (i) primary items, dimensions and domain members, (ii) hypercubes and (iii) rendering linkbase.

eXperienCes, ChaLLenges anD BenefitsIdentification of consistent business requirements may sound easy and not particularly innovative. However, as Carlos Rodriguez, FINReP Coordinator, who was fundamental to the development of FINReP dPM, points out: “The dPM is a methodology that allows the business experts, who often come with different interpretations, to reach an agreement about the characteristics of data included in the templates and to communicate them to the IT team. In my opinion, description of a template through the dPM methodology is an elegant and comprehensive way to convey its content as well as relationships with other templates. one look at a given template, analysed with the dPM, is worth many pages of lengthy explanation of its contents.”

Bramudija Hadinoto, director of Information systems Management department of Bank Indonesia, a regulator that uses dPM across all reporting domains including Islamic Finance, highlights similar experiences: “When IT departments ask business departments for meaningful and consistent definitions they often get mixed responses. We plan to use the dPM to organise our communication of reporting requirements across the entire organisation in a clear and precise manner.”

experience shows that use of the dPM methodology may result in a revamp of the scope of information collected from reporting entities. “In our case, the use of dPM in the construction of the XBRl taxonomy for banking institutions will improve information requirements, reducing the duplicates and allowing a more consistent and organized structure of data, self-described by the characteristics previously defined,“ says Jacqueline-Isabel Talledo, Analyst at the Banking supervision of Peru.

Among the largest adopters of the dPM methodology are the european Banking Authority (eBA) and the european Insurance and


not onLy sUpervisionInterestingly the logic of dPM was found to be useful in an unexpected area: “In the XBRl Abstract Model Task Force, we aim to define a technology-neutral abstraction of the XBRl standard logic. In order to achieve that, the Primary Model uses concepts from the dPM methodology,” says Herm Fischer, Member of the XBRl standards Board.

Also the traditional financial reporting domain may, in future, become a user of dPM: “We are monitoring the dPM developments and application, and analysing whether the methodology could be useful for IFRs XBRl financial reporting. Certain dPM findings may potentially improve our way of designing the IFRs taxonomy,” says olivier servais, director of XBRl Activities at the International Accounting standards Board (IAsB).

What Lies aheaD for the DpM?The dPM methodology is not the solution for every supervisory data modelling problem. dPM-based XBRl taxonomies often require voluminous XBRl reports due to the way dimensions are defined in the XBRl contexts. similarly, solutions are required to support the new approach and table (rendering) specification is required to visualise multi-dimensional data sets.

However, with the worldwide dPM adoption we can be certain to hear more about it in the coming months.

For more information about the dPM, visit: www.eurofiling.info/dpm.

sUpervising MoDeLs: XBRl ANd dATA PoINT ModellING

“The dPM methodology may result in a revamp

of the scope of information collected

from reporting entities.”

MICHAl PIeCHoCKI, BusINess RePoRTING – AdVIsoRY GRouP

occupational Pensions Authority (eIoPA). Andreas Weller, Head of IT at eBA, announced at the XBRl International Conference in Abu dhabi that: “The eBA goal is to make the dPM model along with the respective XBRl taxonomies, the obligatory, central solution describing european banking sector supervisory information requirements. We also expect the dPM to improve management and update of changes to allow the eBA to promptly respond to changing market demands.” 2

The eBA sister organisation, eIoPA, is also planning to use the dPM: “The solvency II directive requires comprehensive data sets. our assumption is that with the dPM we can provide a layer describing these data sets in an explicit and unambiguous manner to assist the national insurance supervisors and reporting entities across europe,” says Pierre-Jean Vouette, special Advisor at eIoPA.

For solvency II the expectations from dPM are already growing as John dill, CIo of the Bermuda Monetary Authority (the supervisor who authored the first solvency II dPM-based XBRl taxonomy) highlights: “We believe the data points to be a mechanism not only for Pillar III solvency requirements but also a facilitator of Pillar II (oRsA) XBRl reporting framework enabling connection of GRC-type information with supervisory data sets.”

While it seems that the dPM methodology is increasingly used to consistently describe reporting requirements, it may also be able to fulfil the needs of supervisory information analysis. “Working with a national regulator, we found out that the dPM breakdowns allow for advanced analysis of cross-template and cross-sector information using the business intelligence software. It clearly has the potential to enable and improve the systemic risk analysis,” says Maciej Piechocki, of Cundus AG.

2 HTTP://ARCHIVe.XBRl.oRG/24TH/sITes/24THCoNFeReNCe.XBRl.oRG/FIles/

BNKG5ANdReAsWelleR.PdF


stanDarDs DeveLopMent IN XBRl

THe edIToR oF THe INlINe XBRl sPeCIFICATIoN dIsCusses THe Issues ARIsING FRoM deVeloPING sTANdARds ANd sTRATeGIes FoR HoW To IMPRoVe.

Most of us in the XBRl software vendor community know our competitors pretty well. Many of us have worked together on industry working groups since the XBRl standard was in its infancy. We have worked, as colleagues, to develop the inter-related specifications that make up the XBRl family of standards. All the significant vendors have worked, at different times, on the various key specifications that are now in use around the world.

despite the support of the software vendor community, XBRl standards still take a long time

to develop and refine. Inline XBRl, for instance, began as a research project in 2005, was adopted by an XII Working Group in 2007, and made it to Recommendation in 2010, with the support of both governments and software vendors. That was five years from first understanding a market problem to being able to provide a fully-specified solution, supported by the XII consortium. For a technical working group, that was pretty good going, and delivered a specification which has not been changed since and is expected to be stable through to at least 2015.

By PHIlIP AlleN,CoreFiling

opinion


to be recognised that standards development is an inherently slow and expensive process and, as such, is a tool that should be applied sparingly.

In the wider technology world, there are some good examples of where a more heterogeneous approach has been successful. For example: schematron (an Iso standard) provides a popular alternative approach to validating documents in XMl (a W3C standard). Far from undermining the XMl specification, the existence of schematron broadens the overall appeal of XMl as a standard. It is worth noting that the original versions of schematron were not backed by any formal standards body.

Another example is Rss (formally ‘RdF site summary’, but informally ‘Really simple syndication’). originally designed by Netscape to solve a specific problem for Netscape’s My.Netscape.Com portal, Rss became the basis for content summaries used by the vast majority of

the world’s blogs. The history of Rss is an interesting and not entirely smooth one, ultimately resulting in the closely related Atom standard being released by the IeTF standards body. Whilst there are some important lessons to be learnt from Rss as regards the hazards of a lighter weight standardisation process, I don’t think anyone would dispute the benefits of Rss becoming a de facto standard.

It is now a decade since work began on the current stable specification for XBRl. Is it time to open up the standards creation process?


“Far from undermining the XMl specification, the existence of schemation

broadens the overall appeal of XMl as a

standard.”

PHIlIP AlleN, CoReFIlING

What Can Be Done to speeD Up the DeveLopMent of teChniCaL stanDarDs?Historically, XBRl standards have been developed by volunteers drawn from around the XBRl community, with administrative and process support from XBRl International. Creation of a specification calls for dedicated (if not full-time) editors, persistent reviewers, skilled testers and continuous feedback from end-users. Few specifications can rely on all of these, and the lack of experienced input can slow progress down to a crawl.

I believe that one problem that we face has been a tendency to bite off more than we can chew. specifications start with a list of requirements, and working group chairs can be reluctant to rule any of them out of scope. It is far better to break the requirements down into small, easily-scoped packages which can be completed, proved and taken through the standards process in a relatively short space of time. There are some good examples of this in the XBRl space – but they are still the exception rather than the rule.

secondly, there is an assumption that all XBRl standards should be developed by XBRl International. XII has two roles – to develop specifications and to promote adoption of the standard. If the consortium were to encourage the development of related standards by external bodies, would it be able to achieve its adoption targets faster?

Thirdly, with the XBRl community built around a standards body, there is a tendency to see each problem as an opportunity for standardisation. To put it another way, if the only tool you have is a hammer, every problem starts to look like a nail. It is certainly true that standardisation is critical to achieving interoperability, but there are plenty of problems where interoperability is not the primary concern, and the development of the best possible solutions can safely be left to the market. It needs


Taxonomies are a key part of XBRl. They typically consist of many files, hosted on a website, which are then referenced by the instance documents or extension taxonomies that use them. This creates two practical problems for people working with taxonomies.

proBLeM 1: finDing the entry pointsover time, taxonomies have become increasingly complicated, and modular taxonomies consisting of tens, if not hundreds, of files have now become the norm.

For example, the full 2009 uK GAAP, IFRs, Banking and Charities taxonomies ZIP file consisted of 603 files. end users only need concern themselves with four of them (the ‘entry points’). However, in order to find those four files, users need to consult the accompanying documentation, published in the form of a Word document, and then browse to the relevant files using their preferred XBRl software.

Wouldn't it be easier if users could just point their XBRl software at the ZIP, be presented with a list of the four entry points (with sensible, human readable descriptions), and then just open what they wanted?

proBLeM 2: offLine WorkingXBRl taxonomies are typically published on publicly available web servers. They are then referenced by instance documents using an absolute uRl. An XBRl processor consuming such a document will then follow the uRl and download the files that make up the taxonomy as required. In order to load the document, you will need a fast internet connection (the uK taxonomies alone consist of over 50MB of XMl files).

Your software may be able to cache copies of the taxonomies once loaded, but you will have to access them first in order to trigger the cache. of course you could download the taxonomy in advance, but configuring software in order to use your downloaded copy will be a nuisance.

Wouldn't it be easier if a user could just give XBRl software a ZIP of the taxonomy, and have it configure itself for offline use, so that instance documents referencing that taxonomy would then ‘just work’?

the soLUtion: taXonoMy paCkagesTaxonomy packages are a simple solution to the above problems requiring only a minimal change to the way that taxonomies are currently distributed. Most taxonomies are already made available as ZIP files, containing all the files that make up the taxonomy. A taxonomy package is simply that same ZIP file with an extra XMl file dropped into it. The taxonomy package XMl file provides a list of the entry points within the taxonomy, along with names and descriptions. It contains the generic name, description and version meta-data about the taxonomy as a whole, making a taxonomy distribution self-documenting. All names and descriptions have support for multi-language alternatives. The XMl file also documents the ‘official’ locations of the enclosed files so that XBRl software can configure itself to use the files in the package, rather than retrieving the taxonomy from the internet.

Working With taXonoMy paCkagesTaxonomy packages use the Creative Commons licence, which allows free use of the format (including for commercial purposes). We hope that the XBRl community will agree that this is a simple solution to a simple problem, which will make XBRl that little bit easier to work with and less intimidating for end users.

As you would expect, CoreFiling products now support taxonomy packages.

open source developers will find that taxonomy packages are also supported by the Arelle platform.

RESOuRcES:sPeCIFICATIoN: http://www.corefiling.com/specifications/taxonomypackages/ FuRTHeR INFoRMATIoN: http://blogs.corefiling.com/2011/10/taxonomy-packages/


Case stUDy: taXonoMy paCkages – A sIMPle sPeCIFICATIoN To solVe A uNIVeRsAl PRoBleM

opinion


XII is committed to cultivating even greater market opportunities and value for XBRL and the global XBRL community through:Protecting current investments in XBRLEncouraging the adoption of XBRL worldwide

Preparing XBRL for new opportunities in the future

XII is currently undertaking a series of strategic initiatives that will enhance the XBRL specification and ensure that the standard is flexible enough to adapt to current trends, evolving standards, new markets, and emerging technologies – preserving and promoting XBRL for the future.

Create an abstract model to provide a conceptual framework for understanding XBRL and give developers a strong foundation for implementing XBRL solutions. *UNDERWAY*

Produce training materials to lend support to developers and those new to XBRL. *UNDERWAY*

Define standard API signatures that will assist developers with their implementation ofXBRL solutions.

Reorganise the existing specification to make it easier to understand.

Enhance data comparability to widen the applicability of XBRL data across project and international boundaries. *UNDERWAY*

Develop application profiles in order to reduce the scope of XBRL implementations by breaking up the XBRL specification into components.

The final part of the equation is you! Your participation is critical to the future success of XBRL. Numerous committee and task force appointments are open now!

Find more information at www.xbrl.org or join XII today at www.xbrl.org/HowtoJoin

Millions of companiesCountless investors, regulators, analysts, accountants, and technologistsOne Standard

August_iBR_PPP.indd 1 8/14/2011 6:28:59 PM

XBrL24 – sTRuCTuRed dATA IN THe uAe

suRYA suBRAMANIAN, CFo oF eMIRATes NATIoNAl BANK oF duBAI, dIsCusses THe loNG TeRM BeNeFITs oF THe XBRl24 CoNFeReNCe IN duBAI ANd ouTlINes THe GRoWTH PRosPeCTs FoR XBRl IN THe uAe.

UpDate

By suRYA suBRAMANIAN, emirates National Bank of dubai


4. Continued regulatory guidance, support and participation in implementation

5. Improved transparency, granularity and quality of financial disclosures will allow the banking industry to attract foreign capital

DiD yoU finD the introDUCtion of hanDs-on sessions vaLUaBLe, anD if so, to What eXtent?The introduction of ‘hands-on’ sessions was particularly useful for companies to gain insights into implementation considerations, mainly regarding the following:1. Taxonomy development and standardization

opportunities2. opportunities to standardize business

information in source systems and enterprise resource planning and accounting applications

3. data mapping and automation of reporting

Who BenefiteD Most froM this ConferenCe? Who shoULD ConsiDer attenDing the neXt event?Among those who benefited from the conference were:1. Companies – Filers of XBRl returns2. Regulators – Required to ensure compliance3. stock exchanges4. Investors – Greater awareness of listed and

regulated companies5. Technology solution providers and consultants –

Automation initiatives 6. Auditors – Compliance and improved financial

disclosures

For future conferences, other regional companies and regulators should be encouraged to participate and understand the benefits of using the XBRl platform.

XBrL24 – sTRuCTuRed dATA IN THe uAe

as the first event in the Uae, What speCifiC Benefits Do yoU see CoMing oUt of the XBrL24 ConferenCe for the region?The 24th XBRl International Conference held in the uAe for the first time provided the following key benefits to the uAe and the region:1. Increased awareness of the XBRl reporting platform 2. Greater visibility for the uAe as leading financial

center3. Regulators’ participation and support with

improved knowledge of the current challenges faced by companies

4. Companies will be encouraged to take automation initiatives, integrate reporting and compliance

5. Regional nuances and standardization of taxonomy for uAe companies in line with international peers

WhiCh sessions DiD yoU finD Most vaLUaBLe anD Why?Amongst other presentations, the preparers and consumers panel discussions were useful and provided insights into the XBRl implementation challenges faced by the industry and raised a number of arguments on how companies could benefit from XBRl. 1. Preparers panel

a. Insights into current challenges being faced by the preparers

b. drive for automation and cost challengesc. Need for standardization

2. Consumers panela. electronic extraction of datab. Improved efficiencyc. Comparability of financial statements and

improved disclosures

With a traCk DeDiCateD to the Banking seCtor, What Were the key take-aWay points for fUtUre DeveLopMent/iMpLeMentation in the Uae?1. Given the number of benefits, banks should be

encouraged to adopt and implement the XBRl reporting platform

2. Need for standardization of taxonomy 3. support automation in order to improve quality of

information

“Amongst other presentations, the preparers

and consumers panel discussions were useful

and provided insights into the XBRl implementation

challenges faced by the industry.” suRYA suBRAMANIAN,

eMIRATes NBd


foCUs on AMeRICAs: uNITed sTATes

XBrL anD BusINess INTellIGeNCe

sKIP FAlATKo ANd THoMAs Hood oF THe MARYlANd AssoCIATIoN oF CPAs (MACPA) dIsCuss THeIR deCIsIoN To TAG INTeRNAl FINANCIAls usING XBRl, ANd HoW THeY CReATed A BusINess INTellIGeNCe dAsHBoARd To IdeNTIFY eFFICIeNCIes IN INTeRNAl FINANCIAl RePoRTING.

BaCkgroUnDThe idea of bringing XBRl to the Maryland Association of CPAs (MACPA) began in early 2011. The MACPA was already familiar with XBRl and well aware that it was a game-changer when it came to financial reporting. However, after discussions with eric e. Cohen from PwC, the idea of XBRl Global ledger (Gl) being used internally by a small, not-for-profit association as a case study took off.

The MACPA saw this as a perfect opportunity to showcase the power of XBRl and its use for internal reporting, even for small organizations. After a few meetings with eric Cohen, areas of interest were identified for using XBRl Gl. The MACPA saw XBRl Gl being most beneficial for linking the two systems together: using XBRl Gl to aid internal reporting, and – most importantly – using XBRl Gl to feed business intelligence

type applications. The benefits were faster access to the data and analytics by the MACPA’s team and efficiencies for the finance team in data production and reporting.

prior to XBrL gLoBaL LeDgerThe MACPA uses two major systems to run its operations: an association management system (AMs) called AM.net and Microsoft dynamics as its general ledger accounting system. While both AM.Net and dynamics have built-in report features that are of great use, the finance staff, in particular, found some of the reporting capabilities to be limited. one of the main issues was a lack of detail provided in AM.Net reports, due to the way data was imported into dynamics in a summarized form. Another issue is that whilst the reporting in AM.Net is very useful, finance staff found themselves compiling reports manually from various exports out of the database.

By sKIP FAlATKo and THoMAs Hood, The Maryland Association of CPAs (MACPA)



oBjeCtives anD goaLsThe MACPA wanted to create a Business Intelligence (BI) dashboard to complement and expand current financial reporting and analysis solutions by linking together disparate systems, connecting the data, and allowing users to see the whole picture. This is partly accomplished by freeing the data from reporting limitations and the data’s proprietary system and using workflow software to automate the analysis and production of reports customizable by the users.

The goal of the BI dashboard is to provide financial reporting and key performance indicators (KPI) so that managers and employees can act quickly and efficiently, with as little manual effort as possible. This is made possible due to the in-depth detail provided by XBRl Gl, which is easily manipulated, aggregated and dispersed throughout the organization in an automated, error-free fashion. An example of this is the move from paper-based financial statements to new online financials with drill-down capabilities.

eXtraCt the DataFreeing the data from the current reporting systems quickly and unexpectedly became the theme. By doing this, we free any limitations that were previously present and disbar the manual processes that previously existed due to the stringent way in which data was exported from the two systems. As a desired goal and result of freeing the data, it is anticipated that the finance team will have more time to perform higher-level analytics and to think of new metrics.

The underlying process driving the liberation of data can most aptly be defined as an extract, Transform and load (eTl) process, where data is extracted from two separate systems, transformed into an XBRl Gl instance document and loaded into the tool of choice for analysis. Altova MapForce is the driving application for the eTl process, allowing different queries of data to be run against the sQl server and different functions to manipulate data into groups and identify metrics. Altova MapForce is therefore pulling the data out of the relational database structure and putting it into a machine-readable document that has context and hierarchical relationships instead of relational ones.

stanDarDize the DataHaving access to data unfettered from the proprietary system from which it came is an important step in the process, but alone it would not accomplish much and would leave the user with similar exports that are already available. XBRl Gl serves as the medium that conducts the eTl process: organizing and standardizing the data from the two separate systems into a contextual machine-readable document. Gl is the key to this application – it allows us to move our newly freed data to any system in a standardized way. since XBRl Gl is open source, it is system independent and readily processed in a number of ways. It is important to note that an XBRl Gl instance file can be imported directly to excel; however, for this particular case, all XBRl Gl instance documents are processed by an sQl server.

ultimately, an sQl database was chosen to process the data, allowing for quick distribution

Am.nEt

ApEvents

job cost

ReceivablesAccrualsBudget

dynAmIcS

Summarized Exports

extract and transform data out of the proprietary

system.

Need to rely on proprietary system reports is no longer a factor. Freeing the data is

the first step.

ExtRAct thE dAtA

XBRl Global ledger is used to standardize the data.

once the data is standardized, it can be moved to any program

that needs to use it.

StAndARdIZE thE dAtA

users can create reports without limitations.

enhanced reports with rich visualization, give the

numbers meaning.

AnAlyZE thE dAtA


of updated data throughout the organization. Having the data stored in the XBRl Gl instance document provides the ability to shift between applications easily and painlessly. For example, if the management were to share the instance document at an offsite location with the Board of directors where the sQl server is inaccessible, the instance document could be pulled directly into excel via Import XMl. once the data is standardized with Gl, imagination and the tools available are the only limits as to how the data can be used.

XBRl Gl also increases the ability to reuse our mappings, especially with other state CPA associations, allowing benchmarking and easy comparison of numbers across associations.

anaLyze the Data – MiCrosoft eXCeL anD poWerpivotWhile freeing the data is the theme of the application, not being able to make use of it would undermine the desired result. The need to analyze the data and use it in day-to-day operations requires a software package that anyone in the organization can use. Microsoft excel, with the free add-on PowerPivot, is easy to learn and is already used by the team at MACPA. It therefore became the product of choice.

An sQl data connection to an sQl server that holds the XBRl data is used to provide live

access to data as it is passed from the eTl process, allowing access to the most up-to-date data from any computer on the network. PowerPivot charts and tables are used to create dashboards and reports that are dynamic, allowing users to actively filter and ‘mold’ the data into the form required. so, PowerPivot provides us with the reports as we wish to see them. More importantly, it allows us to slice the data in any way, encouraging the creation of new reports or different views of data – a practice that did not previously exist in the MACPA due to barriers of data.

pUtting the pieCes together – aLtova fLoWforCeHaving the eTl process automated is essential to any sort of business intelligence or business performance management system. Automation reduces errors, speeds up reporting cycles and encourages users to actively view information when they know it is consistently updated. Automation was achieved in this situation by using Altova’s FlowForce and MapForce server.

FlowForce allows quick deployment of mappings to a server, which can then be set up to be triggered by timers, including file modified dates, among other options. All mappings are deployed to the FlowForce server via MapForce. The mappings that handle data extraction and standardization to an XBRl Gl Instance document are set to run nightly, while the mappings that load the instance documents to PowerPivot are executed when the new instance document is generated. The following morning, anyone who looks at a report in PowerPivot is able to view the most current information in the system.

the Big piCtUreIn data dynamite: How liberating Information Will Transform our World, david stephenson writes: “The data provides the real-time information. The collaborative tools provide the means to fully explore and integrate the information. Together, they create the opportunity to blast past practices to smithereens, improving data analysis and decision-making throughout society. When we do that we can do things more quickly, integrate more

dynAmIcS Am.nEtxBRl

GlOBAl lEdGER

foCUs on AMeRICAs: uNITed sTATes



perspectives, and adapt more readily than ever before. There has simply never been this kind of power and insight before.”

In our case, the MACPA’s data has been freed from its proprietary system(s) and made available to all users. The collaborative tools are the PowerPivot templates drawing on the XBRl data and the drill-down financials. In addition, a major internal KPI effort is under way to involve the entire MACPA team in understanding the business drivers and links from their jobs to the business results. The MACPA wants insights and perspectives from its entire team to help navigate the rapidly changing business landscape.

As a result, the finance department does not need to spend extra time manually compiling and fact-checking reports. The finance department and all staff have access to live data from the two systems, free from proprietary reporting limitations, with the tools to analyze the data in any way they see fit. The ability to create reports and analyze them with the XBRl Gl data is powerful in its own right, but even more powerful when coupled with the reports that already exist in dynamics or AM.Net. The MACPA staff now has access to a dynamic, real-time reporting capability that can be used in lieu of (or in conjunction with) the legacy systems as supplemental information, solely at the users’ discretion. The result of our application of XBRl has been significant time-saving in the finance department, increased accessibility of the data and analytical tools, and faster decision-making capability by our management team and users.

fUtUre pLansFuture plans for the MACPA’s work with XBRl include (but are not limited to) expanding and refining the use of XBRl Gl internally, Form 990 automation through use of XBRl Gl, the creation of a not-for-profit XBRl taxonomy, and even the ambitious goal of bringing standard Business Reporting (sBR) to the state of Maryland.

Continued use and expansion of XBRl Gl to capture product information, sales and backlog information from the MACPA Customer Relationship Management (CRM) system, salesForce (another system in use), and information from the new learning Management system (lMs), are high on the list. Refining the choice of elements used in the current mapping will continue, ensuring that the best choice is made to represent the data. The use of XBRl formulas is on the chalkboard. standardizing the data is important; however, standardizing the processes that create the standardized data is equally important and an integral piece of the XBRl Gl philosophy.

The MACPA recently began working under guidance from louis Matherne for the Financial Accounting standards Board, to create a not-for-profit taxonomy. In line with this, the MACPA is planning to release its financial statements in XBRl on its website in the near future.

“The result of our application of XBRl

has been significant

time-saving in the finance

department, increased

accessibility of the data and

analytical tools, and faster decision-

makingcapability by our

management team and users.”

THoMAs Hood, MACPA

sKIP FAlATKo, MACPA


foCUs on euRoPe: F INlANd

paving the Way for

XBrL IN FINlANd

By esKo PeNTTINeN, Aalto university and elINA KosKeNTAlo, TIeKe, The Finnish Information society development Centre

AAlTo uNIVeRsITY’s esKo PeNTTINeN ANd elINA KosKeNTAlo FRoM TIeKe, THe FINNIsH INFoRMATIoN soCIeTY deVeloPMeNT CeNTRe, sHARe THeIR eXPeRIeNCes oF IMPleMeNTING A sTANdARd BusINess RePoRTING (sBR) PRoGRAM IN FINlANd.

our approach to XBRl was not technology-based; rather it was based on practical needs to streamline government reporting in Finland. We had an initiative, named Real-Time economy, underway to improve financial reporting by Finnish companies, including a program involving 15 organizations that were all interested in improving financial reporting and reducing the administrative burden on companies due to government reporting. The result of this initiative is generally known as the standard Business Reporting (sBR) where all the information requirements of the government authorities and regulators are gathered to a single taxonomy to

standardize business reporting. similar initiatives have taken place in Australia and singapore.

once the sBR project was successfully completed in 2010, we started to evaluate different technical platforms and XBRl was, naturally, chosen as the reporting language. As part of the sBR project, we had already involved the key organizations: the registrar’s office, the tax office and statistics Finland as well as a number of service providers. In other words, bringing XBRl to Finland was really a collaboration effort of several organizations. From the very beginning, the objective was to share the


responsibilities among the stakeholders. Naturally, we needed to get the National Board of Patents and Registration (NBPR) on-board as it is the most critical repository of the financial statements. We also had the support of the Association of Finnish Accounting Firms.

oBjeCtives for 2012our key priorities for 2012 in XBRl Finland are taxonomy development, setting up a mandatory filing program, and increasing the awareness of XBRl in Finland. In terms of XBRl taxonomy work, we currently work on the Finnish GAAP taxonomy. This is progressing well and we expect to have the

paving the Way for XBrL IN FINlANd

definitions of the taxonomy finalized by september. The technical part of the work will take place in fall

2012 and the Finnish GAAP taxonomy will be completed by January 2013. We still need to evaluate whether we will prepare the Finnish XBRl-IFRs taxonomy as well. Parallel to the taxonomy development, we are pursuing, together with the Finnish government, the idea of mandatory XBRl filings in Finland. To increase the awareness of XBRl in Finland, we actively host seminars focusing on different aspects of XBRl. The latest seminar, XBRl

Nordic 2012, gathered a little over 100 participants to the Aalto university.We now have all the critical

“our key priorities for 2012 in XBRl Finland are taxonomy development, setting up a mandatory

filing program, and increasing the

awareness of XBRl in Finland.”


organizations for the Finnish GAAP taxonomy development in the consortium participating in the working groups (altogether there are 16 members). of the organizations driving this forward, both Aalto and TIeKe represent neutral, non-profit organizations. This helps as it gives greater credibility when we speak with government agencies and authorities.

sUCCess faCtors in sBr projeCtsWe see sBR initiatives as the future of government reporting. Providing a single platform to companies for

their reporting is critical in reducing the administrative burden related to reporting. In Finland, the sBR project was very successful and provided a solid starting point for a smooth implementation of XBRl. What were the factors contributing to the success of the Finnish sBR project? A team of researchers at Aalto university (Hannu ojala, esko Penttinen, Tuija Virtanen) interviewed all those involved in the sBR program and through careful analysis of the interviews, came up with seven critical success factors:

foCUs on euRoPe: F INlANd

1. Win, win, win vision: Building a business case for all parties involved. We identified the benefit for government as well as for filers (both sMes and large corporations), report receivers, service providers, accounting firms, and consumers of financial information.

2. Execution: Identifying competent resources to execute tasks and ensuring the timely delivery of validated outputs. We had excellent casting, meaning that there were skilled professionals to all the tasks.

3. commitment: Involving high-level project resources through a sponsorship of executive level project organizations. We were able to get commitment from all parties involved either through high-level decision-making or through active participation in the working groups.

4. track record: establishing credibility through successful past projects. We were able to rely on a development program (Real-Time economy) with successful past projects.

5. Scope definition: setting the boundaries of the project at an ambitious, yet achievable level. In our case, we started with the idea of rolling out a common scheme of accounts but instead we decided to develop a reporting code. This was an important decision as a common account scheme would have been too large to deal with in one go.

6. communication: extensively sharing information about project progress and benefits both internally and externally using many channels. As soon as we developed a new version of the taxonomy, we validated the changes in the working groups instantly.

7. co-creation: Creating the deliverables in collaboration with a large network of experts from several organizations. We did not want the Finnish sBR program to be a one-man show.

“We see sBR initiatives as the future of government reporting. Providing a single platform to companies for their reporting is critical in reducing the administrative burden related to reporting. In Finland, the sBR project was very successful and provided a solid starting point for a smooth implementation of XBRl.”

elINA KosKeNTAlo, TIeKe THe FINNIsH INFoRMATIoN soCIeTY

deVeloPMeNT CeNTRe

esKo PeNTTINeN, AAlTo uNIVeRsITY


join the XBRl Finland Consortium. Tieto sees business opportunities in XBRl-based service provision.

hoW WiLL XBrL iMprove finanCiaL reporting in finLanD?[jp] XBRl, in connection with content specifications, can significantly improve productivity, information quality and the reporting

environment (by replacing paper-based reporting). As such, the benefits for society at large are significant.

[jK] We believe XBRl will boost the quality and the availability of business data. In doing so, XBRl will improve the administrative and private use of financial data and also encourage business innovations.

paving the Way for XBrL IN FINlANd

JoHANNA KoTIPelTo oF THe FINNIsH TAX AdMINIsTRATIoN ANd TIeTo FINlANd oY’s JYRKI PoTeRI TAlK ABouT THe VAlue THeY eXPeCT FRoM PARTICIPATIoN IN THe NeW XBRl JuRIsdICTIoN.

BUsiness opportUnities in XBRl-BAsed seRVICe PRoVIsIoN

Why DiD yoU DeCiDe to join the XBrL finLanD ConsortiUM? What vaLUe Does yoUr organization see in it?[johanna Kotipelto, Finnish tax Administration] We saw XBRl as a standard with a lot of potential in it. In Finland, Tax Administration is the primary collector of financial statements. We have developed procedures for gathering data together with the National Board of Patents and Registration of Finland. We saw it as crucial to join the developing team to secure the best possible outcome for all parties involved in the process. We see standards as a huge opportunity to reduce administrative burden but also an effective way to improve the quality of financial data.

[jyrki poteri, tieto Finland Oy] In 2006, IT service and solution provider, Tieto Finland oy, in cooperation with Aalto university launched a five-stage Tekes funded program called Real-Time economy (RTe). A large group of public and private sector players have participated in the multi-year program, which is currently beginning its final stage.

The objective of the program is to develop, automate and harmonize information flows between business partners, authorities and banks. This will make it possible to move towards electronic business-to-business transactions and improved automation of the administrative processes in organizations of all sizes.

Current XBRl development in Finland is a spin-off from the RTe program, so it was natural for Tieto to

“We see standards as a huge opportunity to reduce administrative

burden but also an effective way to improve

the quality of financial data.”

JYRKI PoTeRI, TIeTo FINlANd oY

JoHANNA KoTIPelTo, THe FINNIsH TAX AdMINIsTRATIoN

“Current XBRl development in Finland

is a spin-off from the RTe program, so it was

natural for Tieto to join the XBRl Finland

Consortium.”


foCUs on euRoPe: XBRl ANd euRosTAT

eUropean BUsiness:BeTTeR dATA FoR

NATIoNAl sTATIsTICAl INsTITuTes

iBR looKs AT THe lessoNs leARNed AT THe ReCeNT WoRKsHoP oN eFFICIeNT dATA ColleCTIoN.

The workshop was organised in the framework of the Programme for Modernisation of european enterprise and Trade statistics (MeeTs). Its main aim was to explore the different ways statistical data is collected from enterprises used by the National statistical Institutes (NsIs) and National Central Banks (NCBs) in compiling business statistics, and in particular when using the annual financial statements of the companies and XBRl (the eXtensible Business Reporting language) in the data exchange. The exchange of experience and best practices in this area should help identify possible synergies and future actions at a european union (eu) level.

1. generaL i.t infrastrUCtUre for BUsiness statistiCs Data CoLLeCtionThe electronic data collection and processing systems were presented by statistical Bureau of

latvia and statistics sweden. The systems include web data collection, data validation and quality assurance modules. They cover different statistical domains and coordinate production processes that finally make statistical output more consistent. The solutions used by the Bank of Italy in financial and non-financial data collection show how to solve complex management issues raised by ever-changing business requirements. The integrated data collection system implemented in Portugal presented by the Bank of Portugal underlined the importance of close cooperation between the different national institutions that are collecting data from businesses.

statistics latvia presented their electronic web-based data collection system ‘e-survey’, which is a part of the metadata-driven Integrated statistical data Management system (IsdMs). The system


eUropean BUsiness: BeTTeR dATA FoR NATIoNAl sTATIsTICAl INsTITuTes

in Portugal in 2007. Ies is a new, paper-free, way of reporting information in which enterprises can submit their compulsory accounting, fiscal and statistical data just one time and online. The system was implemented as part of the national Governmental Programme for Administrative and legislative simplification. The working group in charge of Ies is formed by representatives from the Ministry of Finance, Ministry of Justice, statistics Portugal and the Bank of Portugal.

during the implementation process, the Chartered Accountants Chamber was consulted and the accounting software packages were adapted accordingly. data validation takes place online during the submission process. The system lead to improved timelines of information (in the case of the Central Balance sheet database of the Banco de Portugal, from 12 to 7 months after the reporting period), and improved consistency between different data sources. There are a few concerns regarding future maintenance of this system: the Ies team needs strong leadership, it must be represented when changes to accounting rules are discussed, better cooperation between institutions is needed to disseminate the aggregated information, and the system needs to be expanded to other domains such as a single business register in Portugal.

2. Creation of nationaL statistiCaL taXonoMies statistics estonia, statistics Netherlands, statistics Italy and the Bank of spain presented various ways of using the accounting framework for statistical purposes nationally. Based on a collaboration between several public bodies, the official statistical XBRl taxonomies were created. The CBso of the Bank of spain highlighted the advantages of using standardized financial statements for creating the database that can be used for statistical purposes.

statistics estonia explained how they make the annual financial statements of the companies the primary source for the structural business statistics. since 2010 in estonia, annual financial statements can only be submitted by companies electronically. In order to avoid double data collection it was decided to create an integrated taxonomy and to develop a common environment

provides a universal approach to data treatment, regardless of statistical questionnaires. The users (statistical production experts) can edit, validate and correct algorithms without assistance from IT experts. The main parts of the system are electronic statistical questionnaires and web-based data entry for respondents. The respondents can see all the statistical questionnaires that they have to fill in and the data filled in for previous periods. Reminders to the respondents can be sent automatically. It was said that the system helped to improve the quality of statistical information by reducing the non-response rate and by ensuring consistency between different statistical surveys.

statistics sweden presented a system that created a common (not survey specific) environment for the statistical production process (data collection and micro-data editing). It integrated a web collection tool and a scanning system, a system for treatment of suspicious values and the handling of reporting units etc. The system provides support for quality assurance and planning. It was mentioned that to date, ten statistical surveys are already using the system and that it was planned for 20 more to start using it. The system reduced costs for maintenance (when compared to survey oriented IT systems), reduced the amount of manual work in general, as well as the dependency on single person. All of which are big steps towards a process oriented statistical production system.

The Bank of Italy presented its integrated IT platform for statistical data collection and processing (Infostat) that is able to manage the issues raised by changing business requirements. The foundation of the statistical information system is a matrix information model that includes multi-dimensional data (time series, cross sectional data etc.), business registers and questionnaires (e.g. balance of payments). Moreover, the system is interoperable with different formats (sdMX, XBRl). A case study featuring the actual web-based survey used for the management of data reports from Financial Vehicle Corporations has already proved the efficiency of the system.

The Bank of Portugal presented its integrated data collection system (Ies) that had been launched


for data submission. XBRl was chosen as the data transmission standard. several public institutions were involved in this project, including statistics estonia, which created the correspondence tables from administrative to statistical files. esTAT, an electronic communication channel, was used for the submission of data from companies to the NsI. The system allows respondents to see all the statistical questionnaires that must be completed. The available administrative data are automatically converted into a statistical format. Respondents must only complete the information that is missing in the financial statements. The data from the annual financial statements is preloaded onto the system on a daily basis. A major advantage is that the system leads to a significant reduction of the reporting burden on companies.

statistics Netherlands presented the dutch taxonomy project that involved statistics Netherlands, the Tax office, the Chamber of Commerce and commercial banks. The idea was to create a taxonomy that satisfies the needs of all the users of the companies’ financial data. A single standard (XBRl), a single infrastructure and a harmonised taxonomy for business reporting was adopted. unfortunately, the actual number of companies that were reporting according to this single standard was discouraging. Possible reasons for this include the complicated infrastructure, the ambitious taxonomy architecture, no possibility to drill down from taxonomy to chart of accounts and therefore no direct mapping. Basic building blocks of government reporting should be linked to the generic chart of accounts that is in between these reports and the book keeping. A generic chart of accounts would not replace reports but would define compliant definitions of financial facts.

statistics Italy (IsTAT) presented the project on statistical taxonomy launched by IsTAT in 2010. The main objective was to develop the statistical extension of the XBRl financial taxonomy. In 2008,

the XBRl taxonomy for financial statements was adopted and became mandatory. 2010 was the first year in which companies had to send their financial statements in XBRl to the Chamber of Commerce. IsTAT presented their statistical needs by participating in XBRl jurisdiction working groups. It was important to achieve consistency between statistical definitions and IFRs/XBRl (or the eu IV directive) definitions in order to achieve a generally accepted standard. In 2010, IsTAT in co-operation with the official GAAP Authority, professional accountants, enterprises’ syndicate and software vendors, launched the statistical XBRl taxonomy project. The items that were needed only for statistical purposes were also included in the official

taxonomy. It was planned that the statistical XBRl taxonomy should first cover the needs of structural Business statistics and short-Term statistics and could be extended later to other statistical domains. The size of the enterprise and the number of questionnaires that a company has to fill in were taken into account. The project showed that it was not possible to create a general scheme that matched all the enterprises

but that the scheme needed to be customised by each company in order to match the financial XBRl taxonomy. The project is still ongoing. The experimental statistical data collection in XBRl format has been planned for the first half of 2012.

The experience of the Central Balance sheet data office (CBso) of the Bank of spain in developing and using statistical taxonomies was presented by the President of the european Committee of CBso (eCCBso). The basic taxonomies used for statistical purposes are the following: accounting for listed companies (and groups of companies), national GAAP for non-financial companies (and groups of companies not listed), statistical taxonomies for financial institutions, general identification data and accounting for public institutions. The data available at CBso are widely used by the compilers of financial accounts. Related to

foCUs on euRoPe: XBRl ANd euRosTAT

“The solutions used by the Bank of Italy

in financial and non-financial data collection

show how to solve complex management

issues raised by ever-changing business

requirements.”


eUropean BUsiness: BeTTeR dATA FoR NATIoNAl sTATIsTICAl INsTITuTes

eCCBso, the IFRs/XBRl taxonomy was extended for methodological purposes; this was done in collaboration with the IAsB Foundation XBRl team. In 2010, a reduced format was used to collect the data of more than 1,200 listed european groups. This information was stored by the eCCBso in a dataset called eRICA. In the case of the spanish experience, the main requirements for the successful implementation of the XBRl taxonomies were the close collaboration with the XBRl spain jurisdiction, the involvement of the regulators (Ministry of Finance and Bank of spain) and the decision to make the taxonomies compulsory.

3. the Use of XBrL in statistiCaL Data CoLLeCtionXBRl is revolutionising business reporting around the world. The use of XBRl is already mandatory for financial reporting in a number of member states and there are discussions on making it mandatory throughout the eu. This could be beneficial for statistics in the data exchange between businesses and national statistical authorities and this was proved by the presentations given by statistics Finland, the Bank of Belgium, statistics Belgium, and the Bank of spain.

statistics Finland presented their joint project that involved the Tax administration, the Trade Register, the Company Analysis Advisory Board, statistics Finland, the Finish e-invoice collaborative Network, the Association of Finish accounting firms and the university and school of economics. The project was called Fully Integrated Accounting (FIA). The objectives of the project were to create a system of business reporting that can be used for several purposes (e.g. financial statements, tax declarations and statistical surveys) and to make the official reporting for businesses faster, cheaper and more consistent. The idea was to create a National standard for Mandatory Business Reporting (accounting/statistical taxonomy – not a generalised chart of accounts). The Board of National standard for Mandatory Business Reporting and XBRl Finland jurisdiction agreed that XBRl/XMl reporting was the most prominent vehicle for the taxonomy. The first standard was presented to the public in september 2010. It was confirmed by the Board of National standard for Mandatory

Business Reporting and should be confirmed every year. Key to its success were the co-operation of several interested parties and the XBRl jurisdiction. The challenge was to introduce the taxonomy/XBRl schema to businesses and the most effective way is to make XBRl reporting mandatory.

The Bank of Belgium presented two different solutions for different requirements for data collection with XBRl. The first solution allows the legal deposit of annual accounts and the second concerns a generic tool for reporting in the banking and insurance sector. It was said that close collaboration between business and IT experts was needed to define the best solutions for business requirements. The decision of the Central Balance sheet data office to switch to XBRl at the beginning of 2004 played a major role. In 2007, the first annual accounts of Belgian enterprises were filed in XBRl format. In 2011, 97% of the annual accounts were filed in XBRl, 2% in PdF format and less than 1% on paper. It was concluded that XBRl was a flexible language that makes the business easier, enhances standardisation and reduces maintenance costs. The implementation may vary from one project to another depending on individual requirements.

statistics Belgium made a presentation on the creation of XBRl taxonomies for statistical surveys (sBs, job vacancy, social rent index, production price index). This involved cooperation with federations and software vendors in order to incorporate statistical taxonomies into software tools. The main functionalities of the data collection architecture included the upload of instances directly from software systems, manual encoding in automatically generated web pages, pre-filing of all the data available at statistics Belgium from different sources and instant validation as well as the export of the data into the data warehouse. The web data collection was made for each statistical survey and was fully ‘form-based’. The results showed a better consistency between administrative and statistical data and cost effectiveness for both – the respondents and the National statistical Institute.

The Bank of spain presented their experience of collecting data from companies for statistical


purposes. XBRl was selected as the standard because it allows users to create metadata definitions, and on the basis of core taxonomies (e.g. IFRs/XBRl taxonomies) it allows the creation of national, industrial and company extensions. Work started in 2002 and involved the Ministry of economy and the Ministry of Justice. The compulsory use of XBRl was agreed for the financial statements of the companies’ deposit in the Business Registers (Mercantile Registers). In this context, the companies were provided with the software that converts the data into XBRl files. 2006 was the first reporting year that Banco de españa CBso provided financial statements in XBRl format. since 2008, XBRl has been mandatory (in Mercantile Registers). The next step in this process was the creation of an integrated data Point Model that, when the data are stored in XBRl, enables the identification of use data from any financial, prudential and statistical reporting framework. one major conclusion was that the work can only be successful if there is close collaboration between business and IT experts and if XBRl format is made mandatory for reporting.

4. XBrL ifrs taXonoMy The IFRs Foundation presentation, made by the director of XBRl Activities, provided a general picture of the IAsB and XBRl activities that aim to deliver a high quality IFRs taxonomy that is consistent with the IFRs and IFRs for sMes on the one hand, and serving all constituents’ interests, including issuers, regulators and users on the other hand. It was said that the building blocks for preparers of the taxonomy are based on concepts with regard to core disclosure requirements, guidance and examples, common practice, local/regulatory concepts and finally company concepts. There are five main stages of the IFRs Taxonomy due process. Among the stages, there is public consultation on exposure draft IFRs taxonomy and the publication of final annual IFRs taxonomy and support materials. The exposure

draft taxonomy 2012 has 3,800 items, out of which nearly 700 items are based on common practice. IFRs taxonomies have been translated in more than ten languages, among them Nl, FR, de, Hu, IT, PT, es. It was said that in order to implement the IFRs taxonomy in a consistent way, it is necessary to follow the Interoperable Taxonomy Architecture (ITA) and the Global Filing Manual (GFM) in order to remain compliant with the IFRss. The opportunity to align non-financial reporting with IFRs taxonomy was also mentioned.

overaLL ConCLUsionsThese illuminating, outspoken and very informative presentations triggered many interesting questions

and comments that will serve as food for further thought and should encourage further workshops. The presentations highlighted the importance of close cooperation between national administrations and a unification of concepts, in order to create an integrated taxonomy and a common environment for business data reporting. This can lead to a

considerable improvement in the efficiency of data collection in terms of conserving resources needed for statistical data collection.

The workshop also identified the main areas for future collaborative work, such as mapping accounting with international statistical standards (esA 2010), making statistics out of financial reports/ administrative data, and overall governance at national level for coordinating input to european statistics (e.g. interoperability of XBRl and sdMX).

It was agreed to keep meeting regularly to discuss the use of accounting frameworks in statistical data collection, and to explore the possibilities of using XBRl for improving the efficiency and quality of statistical data. This could be one of the challenges for the Task Force on Accounting and statistics that is to be co-chaired by eurostat and the eCB.

foCUs on euRoPe: XBRl ANd euRosTAT eUropean BUsiness: BeTTeR dATA FoR NATIoNAl sTATIsTICAl INsTITuTes

“The presentations highlighted the

importance of close cooperation between

national administrations and a unification of

concepts.”


foCUs on AsIA: sINGAPoRe

3rD XBrL asia roUnDtaBLe ANd sINGAPoRe XBRl

NATIoNAl CoNFeReNCe 2012ACRA HosTed sINGAPoRe’s FIRsT eVeR XBRl NATIoNAl CoNFeReNCe oN 11 MAY 2012 AT THe GRANd HYATT. THe CoNFeReNCe BRouGHT ToGeTHeR sTANdARd seTTeRs, NATIoNAl ReGulAToRs, CoMPANY FIleRs ANd XBRl eXPeRTs FRoM ARouNd THe WoRld, ANd esPeCIAllY THose FRoM THe AsIA ReGIoN, To sHARe GloBAl deVeloPMeNTs oF XBRl BusINess RePoRTING WITH THe loCAl BusINess CoMMuNITY. uNVeIled AT THe NATIoNAl CoNFeReNCe WeRe THe eNHANCed XBRl sYsTeM ANd ReVIsed FIlING ReQuIReMeNTs THAT ACRA WIll Be lAuNCHING IN eARlY 2013.


By lAu sHIH HoR, elixir Technology and KHAdIJA MACKeNZIe, Crimsonlogic

XBrL IN sINGAPoRe

lAu sHIH HoR oF elIXIR TeCHNoloGY ANd KHAdIJA MACKeNZIe FRoM CRIMsoNloGIC TAlK ABouT usAGe ANd uPTAKe oF XBRl IN sINGAPoRe.

foCUs on AsIA: sINGAPoRe

hoW has finanCiaL reporting in singapore ChangeD sinCe the introDUCtion of XBrL tagging?We believe that this is just the initial stage of XBRl adoption. To date, filing the full set of financial statements in XBRl is voluntary and partial filing is acceptable. This results in a slow start in terms of practical use of the financial data, as meaningful analytics would require the merger and synchronization of XBRl with non-XBRl data.

More enterprises are becoming familiar with reporting in XBRl, as accredited providers (like Crimsonlogic)

run on-going training workshops to continue to educate users on filing financial reports in XBRl.

What aDDitionaL BUrDens have CoMpanies eXperienCeD froM Using XBrL anD What soLUtions are they Using to aDDress theM?Given the voluntary and partial requirement thus far, most companies consider it an extra burden to file in XBRl. However, our governing body, ACRA (Accounting and Corporate Regulatory Authority) singapore, has done a good job in providing an online tool for XBRl filing submissions. An improved version supporting offline preparation is planned.


XBrL IN sINGAPoRe

“As XBRl data accumulates, more

practical use is possible. Hence the benefits will start to

encourage more enterprises to file in

XBRl.”

lAu sHIH HoR, elIXIR TeCHNoloGY

KHAdIJA MACKeNZIe, CRIMsoNloGIC

It is also important to realize that we are creating the foundations for more efficient business reporting so that in the long run, as companies get more proficient in reporting, they can also reap the rewards of receiving information faster and in a more transparent way.

are yoU seeing More CLients tag Data internaLLy or eXternaLLy? Why is that?As XBRl data accumulates, more practical use is possible. Hence the benefits will start to encourage more enterprises to file in XBRl.

In conjunction with this, accredited providers are also continuing to drive the momentum through training and

education. once a critical mass is reached, the rest of the industry will gradually follow suit.

in What Ways Can the taXonoMy or the XBrL reporting systeM Be fUrther DeveLopeD?Taxonomy improvements have been spearheaded by ACRA with industry feedback. We are excited about the upcoming improvements: for example, the elimination of self-defined tags will enable data processing to be further streamlined, leading to greater efficiency and accuracy in an XBRl reporting system.

in WhiCh other asia paCifiC CoUntries Might siMiLar reporting initiatives Be sUCCessfUL?Judging by singapore's experience, countries with strong centralized government control and a readiness to invest in a good XBRl reporting system will stand a good chance of successfully rolling this out. This is because most enterprises would consider it an additional burden to file separately in XBRl. of course, the singapore Government and vendors are always open to share their experience to help minimize the transitional pains and accelerate the speed of adoption.


By GReG ZeGARoWsKI, uRs

oUt of oFFICe

oUt oF oFFICeWhat Was yoUr Best WeekenD this year anD Why?Hiking in Yosemite, including a 3,000 vertical ascent up the side of Yosemite Falls. It enriched both soul and body.

What are yoU reaDing?Just finished J.G. Ballard’s final novel, Kingdom Come, an entertaining story about the pitfalls of a consumer society.

Do yoU prefer CrossWorDs or sUDokU?I enjoy both, but only in small doses.

Who is yoUr favorite teLevision CharaCter, past or present?The most memorable was derek Jocobi in the BBC series, I Claudius. More currently, Tina Fey is very quick-witted and creative.

What Do yoU Look forWarD to Most aBoUt the tiMe oUtsiDe the offiCe?Cycling the rolling terrain around the san Francisco Bay Area.

Who is yoUr favorite historiCaL figUre, past or present?I have been inspired by many sports figures, both men and women, who knew the fundamentals of their sport and played enthusiastically, even without getting ‘big bucks’.

What is yoUr favorite Book of aLL tiMe?umberto eco’s Name of the Rose, an intellectual romp through 14th century mysteries. sort of like crosswords and sudoku for the latin-speaking crowd.

oUtsiDe of the offiCe, What is yoUr Most signifiCant personaL ChaLLenge?ensuring that the ‘tyranny of tasks’ does not stifle fun, physical activity and spending time with friends and family.


XBRL International (XII) is the not-for-profit consortium of approximately 650 companies and agencies worldwide leading the effort to build the XBRL language and promote and support its adoption.

Membership in XII gives you the opportunity to influence the ongoing development of XBRL, position your company as a thought leader as XBRL adoption spreads and network with fellow experts around the world to advance your knowledge and business prospects.

XII is now offering a Direct Membership option for corporations, regulatory agencies, individuals and academics who are interested in participating in XBRL development on a global scale. Key benefits include:

• Influence the development and maintenance of the international XBRL standard

• Leverage the globally recognized XBRL brand for your own marketing efforts

• Gain earlier access to emerging market opportunities

• Publish links and information about proprietary solutions, tools, services, events and press releases on the XII website

• Receive a free listing in the International Tools & Services Directory

• Direct Members may also participate in the governance of XII and play a role in its various international technical working groups, committees and boards.

XBRL International members enjoy a host of additional strategic and technical benefits.

Join our global network of executives, accountants, analysts, technologists, consultants, regulators, finance professionals, and academic leaders today!

BENEFIT FROM MEMBERSHIP IN

XII

For more information on additional features and benefits of membership, please visit: http://www.xbrl.org/HowToJoin

August_iBR_Membership.indd 1 8/14/2011 6:30:26 PM

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