Bob Schneider is a Partner in 
Wilson So is the Director of Hitachi America, Ltd. A Small Roundup of New XBRL Content on the Web
Written by Bob Schneider Posted on April 22, 2008
Here are a few XBRL items from recent days that are worth looking at:
(1) In an April 11 story, CFO.com says that “companies participating in the XBRL voluntary program have seen no improvements to their internal operations, according to Financial Executives International.” As Christian Dreyer notes on his European Pensions blog, for now XBRL statements are produced using the bolt-on (as opposed to the integrated) method, so preparers aren’t gaining additional benefits; at the same time, the additional costs are limited. But he also says the article’s characterization of FEI’s concerns about XBRL statements providing “excess information” (as the article puts it) is an “undue truncation” of a more nuanced point made on page 11 of the FEI’s comment letter to the SEC:
“We believe we may be creating a situation where preparers will be providing more information than the analysts want (versus key information/data), later than when they need it (to update their models), thereby missing the real window of opportunity which is likely when a company releases its earnings for the quarter.”
I do think using the phrase “excess information” in connection with interactive data is unfortunate: It implies XBRL adoption will require companies to provide financial information they have not already been supplying in other formats.
(2) Another item of interest from the FEI: In mentioning on its blog that the SEC has postponed its scheduled April 21 meeting on XBRL adoption to May 14, the FEI also notes there will now be an intervening meeting of the Pozen Committee on May 2. Thus there will be an airing of recommendations and testimony regarding the Committee’s proposals before the SEC’s interactive data announcements.
(3) Financial Week has a useful article on what the SEC’s proposals might entail. I could do without their scary subhead, however: “Regulator poised to hit companies with costly data-tagging job that it says will help clarify financials.” The “costly” description isn’t borne out by the content of the piece.
(4) On the tenth anniversary of the genesis of XBRL, Charlie Hoffman has published on his blog a wonderful reminiscence on how he came to conceive of interactive data and describes the first steps toward making it a reality. (BTW, Charlie has graciously agreed to do an interview with us, which we’ll be publishing over the next couple of weeks.)
(5) Finally, in case you haven’t seen it yet, the SEC’s Mutual Fund Reader is now available. In my view, the best thing about the new viewer is that it helps create a critical mass of SEC XBRL tools which allows users to see the power of interactive data.