Digital Financial Reporting

Will there ever be one global approach to digital financial reporting? That is a good question.

The International Journal of Digital Accounting Research published an article, XBRL and Integrated Reporting: The Spanish Accounting Association Taxonomy Approach, which contemplates that issue.

That document pushes "the data point model" approach to modeling information.  There are other approaches. Here is a summary of approaches which I am aware of:

• Data point model
• SEC/US GAAP Taxonomy model (Used by SEC in the US)
• Inline XBRL (Used by HM Revenue and Customs in the UK)
• SBR (Standard Business Reporting, used by The Netherlands and Australian governments)
• MCA India
• Japan FSA
• The Global Filing Manual (don't know how this is going)
• FINREP
• Other more proprietary approaches (like the FDIC)

Would one standard, global model for digital financial reporting be a good thing?  I think so.  Is it necessary? It may not be necessary, but it sure could not hurt. I don't really know the complete list of pros and cons.

It will be interesting to see how this plays out.