XBRL / iXBRL Reporting
The process of finalization of financial statements is rapidly evolving. New frameworks like IFRS are bringing in more standardization globally, and ensuring accurate reference of all accounting labels across regulatory bodies. XBRL is another standard that will change the way corporations communicate their financial data with their stakeholders. It will help the analysis of financial reports and financial performance immensely and thus reduce misinterpretation of financial reports.
Regulators in the UK have already mandated XBRL standards for all UK firms from April 2011. Most firms continue to produce their financial statements in their standard word-processing software – Excel, Word or Adobe Acrobat. However, they will not be able to file their financial reports with regulators like the HMRC in the UK unless they convert their reports to the iXBRL (inline XBRL) format.
Most account production vendors are yet to release their XBRL versions; hence it is critical that firms start planning the conversion of their financial statements into XBRL. However, organizations who utilize accounts production for their accounts data, but then output information into packages (e.g. Word) for the editing, and produce final annual accounts in PDF format; a workflow typical of larger sized companies or do not have the requisite accounts production software still need then to convert their annual accounts into XBRL or iXBRL from PDF, which is extremely problematic.
ECELON converts the financial statements into XBRL / iXBRL by leveraging KhemeiaTM from Stelae Technologies (www.stelae-technologies.com) which is an automated PDF to iXBRL conversion software. The conversion follows a three stage process involving automatic conversion and manual review.
- Stage I :
- The PDF is processed individually or in batches
- Part-finished XBRL output generated using KhemeiaTM’s extraction intelligent extraction logic
- Stage II :
- Part-finished XBRL output fed into the taxonomy engine which has a continuously improving taxonomy dictionary. It follows the UK GAAP taxonomy.
- After the mapping process, the exceptions are highlighted
- Stage III: Validation and Correction
- Manual QA to ensure expected output and remove any exceptions
- Final iXBRL format output for clients to file
The integrated solution offered by Ecelon and Stelae significantly reduces the conversion cost and effort thus enabling corporations to complete their financial statements ahead of deadlines. The productivity gain and accuracy is largely achieved due to the intelligent matching process by KhemeiaTM combined with Ecelon’s XBRL and accounting expertise.
