Content area
Full Text
XBRL: INTRODUCING THE BIGGER PICTURE
By force of law, the Extensible Business Reporting Language (XBRL) has become - or is soon to become - part of most major companies' compliance regimes. Mandates have been announced in the United States, China, Japan, the United Kingdom and numerous other countries around the world. Those responsible for corporate governance may feel that XBRL is something to be reacted to, delegated as deeply as possible and coped with as best as possible; to the contrary, the goal of XBRL itself is that companies collaborate proactively and then share in the benefits from XBRL as a key participant in the Business Reporting Supply Chain (BRSC) - (see Figure 1) - See PDF,.
The goal of this paper is to discuss the larger potential of XBRL in light of (and even where, at least for now, there is still a lack of) mandates, the potential benefits to all involved in the BRSC, and the risk of reacting to, rather than acting on, XBRL efforts globally. Those who understand the greater impact will be able to not only meet compliance requirements more efficiently and communicate with the markets more fully, but also potentially benefit in many additional ways from the adoption of XBRL's recommendations.
XBRL - AS A MANDATE - IS HERE
Events since the Sarbanes Oxley Act of 2002 bring to mind the late comedian and actor George Carlin's quip, 'Honesty may be the best policy, but it's important to remember that apparently, by elimination, dishonesty is the second-best policy'. In response, regulators have been working to make corporate reporting information available in more usable forms and on a more timely basis, so the market can better decide whether they are receiving the truth or not.
On 17 December 2008, the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) voted1 to mandate2 that all public companies begin filing their financial information using Interactive Data.3 The Final Rules4 were published on 30 January 2009. This phased-in requirement, where approximately 500 of the largest filers will need to begin regularly providing a new companion filing along with (or within 30 days after, for the first filing) their first quarterly report for fiscal periods ending on or after 15 June 2009...