Exciting possible uses of XBRL

Read Glen Gray’s book: XBRL: Potential Opportunities and Issues for Internal Auditors

 

Just one tidbit to whet your appetite –

• Web-based Financial Reporting – this is already ongoing and allows users to download and analyze financial information on publicly traded companies
• Financial Analysis – creditors such as banks and various analysts enjoy already the ease of collecting the data they need into analytical software.  Firms with an active acquisition department and their own analysts, including private equity, mutual fund, and hedge fund entities will greatly benefit from the interactivity of XBRL data.  Some of the software makes collecting data for comparison as easy as entering a function in Excel (in a drop-down box).
• Tax and Regulatory Filing – If we want to decrease the size of government (specifically, the cost of it), XBRL can be part of the answer, as the SEC and the FFIEC (bank reporting) agencies and plenty of governmental reporting functions around the world have found out.
• Internal Reports – Here’s an underserved area, given our emphasis on compliance.  Start thinking beyond compliance to leveraging the knowledge and investment in XBRL.  The biggest efficiencies might come once XBRL is more accepted in the transaction level for easier aggregating and summarizing across business system platforms.  This area is huge for multinationals.
• Consolidations – Some players like Oracle are already finding a place for XBRL in their Hyperion Financial Management (HFM) application.  Consolidation is tedious and painful enough that it deserves some earlier attention.

Other cool application would be how the Global Reporting Initiative (GRI) is planning on requiring XBRL in the reporting by their member organizations on corporate social responsibility and sustainability.  The State of Nevada and Oregon State (to name a few) have some forward-thinking modernization projects to  reengineer various processes and become more efficient, especially in managing disbursements (collections) and smaller subentity reporting (Oregon’s CAFR project).

Stay tuned!