SEC Mandates XBRL

It’s official, the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission has approved final rules requiring companies to submit Financial Statements in the interactive financial data format XBRL with their SEC filings beginning with their quarterly June 2009 filings for the largest companies, and within three years for all public companies.

The American Institute of Certified Public Accountants (AICPA) supports the move to XBRL, stating the tagged data system will provide investors and other users of financial information easier access to more transparent data in company reports.

“We are grateful to SEC Chairman Chris Cox for his great leadership with this proposal to enhance transparency in U.S. financial markets through the use of interactive financial reporting data, or XBRL,” said Barry Melancon, AICPA President and CEO. “The proposed rule set forth by the SEC to phase in use of XBRL will help investors and other users of financial information access data more efficiently.”

The SEC will explain the detailed requirements for XBRL implementation in a January 12th webcast. A panel of CPAs and SEC staff will cover:

• requirements and lessons learned from the SEC XBRL Voluntary Program
• tips for implementing XBRL and creating XBRL documents

To register for the Webcast Click Here.

Information Required to be Tagged

Primary financial statements, footnote disclosures and financial schedules will be required to be tagged. Tagging of other narrative disclosures will be optional under the rules.
Timing:

• Year 1 – footnotes and financial schedules “Block text” only, 30 day grace period for first submission of XBRL exhibit.
• Year 2 and beyond – detail tags (individual facts) for footnotes and financial schedules, 30 day grace period for first submission of XBRL exhibit with detail tags for footnotes and schedules.

See Also:
XBRL and the End of Accounting
Image Credit: Joel Telling, Flickr