Digital Financial Reporting

Jon Rowden and Mike Willis of PricewaterhouseCoopers have writen a white paper for the Financial Executives Research Foundation (FERF) titled Making Sense of XBRL In the US and the UK. This is a summary of what the paper discusses:

There can be no doubt that XBRL (eXtensible Business Reporting Language) has become a hot topic for financial executives in the U.S. and also overseas. Many are already familiar, perhaps painfully so, with the SEC's XBRL reporting mandate for issuers and the requirements relating to 10-K annual reports and quarterly filings. This article from Financial Executives Research Foundation looks at what is happening in the United Kingdom, where the tax authorities have introduced an XBRL requirement that affects all companies required to file a tax return. In this article, Jon Rowden and Mike Willis from PwC highlight how the UK mandate differs in some key aspects from the SEC requirement, how the UK requirements are being addressed and outline a wider agenda of considerations for financial executives in the U.S. and elsewhere, prompted by the introduction of XBRL by regulators around the globe.

With 1.6 million legal entities affected by this requirement for accounting periods after April 1, 2010, the use of XBRL takes yet another step forward following the lead of the US SEC, US FDIC, and many others around the globe. The white paper is worth reading discussing the "last mile" of reporting processes, why XBRL and iXBRL are a catalyst for change, common pushbacks and the wider agenda for CFOs and audit committees.