The meeting follows a recent SEC concept release proposing that filers tag individual facts and figures in their financial statements, along with a proposed rule establishing a voluntary filing program to begin in 2005.
Two weeks earlier, XBRL-US announced the availability for public review of a comprehensive set of more than 2,000 tags to be used in such filings.
"The U.S. GAAP XBRL set of tags was developed to address 90 percent of the U.S. GAAP terms for 90 percent of the companies in the U.S.," said Campbell Pryde, KPMG partner and chair of the XBRL-US working group that developed it.
"It is a standard vocabulary of codes that corporate filers, with minor extensions, can use to create the electronic reporting that optimizes review by investors," said Paul Penler, Ernst & Young principal and chair of the XBRL-US steering committee. "The period for public comment provides an important opportunity for companies and other stakeholders to proactively participate in the future of financial reporting."
"This framework and the tag set represents the results of years of collaboration among professional services firms, software vendors, the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants and other non-profit organizations," added Barry Melancon, President and CEO of the AICPA.
Companies preparing financial statements in XBRL using the U.S. GAAP tags and participating in the voluntary filing program will realize several benefits. Mike Willis, PricewaterhouseCoopers partner and founding chair of XBRL International, said that "XBRL enables companies to tell their entire story to the capital markets in a precise, efficient and highly reusable way -- facts, figures, notes, analysis and discussion -- liberating them from reliance on third parties to re-key their information for consumption by investors and other stakeholders."
"Improving investor relations by giving analysts, investors and stakeholders electronic filings that they can readily digest and interpret is the opportunity that XBRL offers," said Colleen Sayther Cunningham, CEO of the Financial Executives Institute. Microsoft, Morgan Stanley, EDGAR Online and other companies already voluntarily provide XBRL filings on their company Web sites.
The SEC voluntary filing program proposed on Sept. 27 opens the door wider for companies not only to post XBRL financial statements on their own Web sites, but, as Microsoft and Morgan Stanley have done on an experimental basis, to have those XBRL filings distributed to the world via EDGAR.
"The Commission's disclosure program can certainly be enhanced with more structured data formats. Having a framework like XBRL that is extensive, widely available and broadly accepted can enrich the disclosure program and improve the information provided to markets," said Corey Booth, SEC Chief Information Officer.
Robert Herz, Chairman of the Financial Accounting Standards Board, echoed this, saying "FASB supports the SEC's program to assess the potential benefits of XBRL as a new and powerful medium for increasing the usability of financial information."
Morgan Stanley hosted the meeting in its continuing worldwide support of XBRL. Trevor Harris, head of the Global Valuation and Accounting Group in Research noted "XBRL adoption continues to grow on an international basis, with the US FDIC, UK Financial Services Authority, and Tokyo Stock Exchange among its many prominent supporters."
XBRL is a royalty-free, open specification for software that uses XML data tags to describe financial information for public and private companies and other organizations. XBRL is aimed at benefiting all members of the financial information supply chain by utilizing a standards-based method with which users can prepare, publish in a variety of formats, exchange and analyze financial statements and the information they contain.
Approximately 50 of the world's leading accounting, financial, government and software organizations are involved in the adoption and use of XBRL. More than 250 companies and organizations are members of XBRL International.
A sample of current members of XBRL-US include: American Institute of Certified Public Accountants; BDO Seidman; CCH Tax Compliance; Crowe Chizek; Deloitte; Ernst & Young, LLP; Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation; Grant Thornton, LLP; Institute of Management Accountants; KPMG, LLP; Merrill Corporation; Microsoft Corporation; National Association of State Auditors, Comptrollers and Treasurers; PricewaterhouseCoopers, LLP; RIA; Thomson Financial; and Wachovia.
For more information on XBRL, visit the XBRL International Web site.
