Bob Schneider is a Partner in 
Wilson So is the Director of Hitachi Consulting Corporation XBRL Reality (and Value) in the U.S.
Written by Greg Zegarowski Posted on June 18, 2008
Greg Zegarowski, President of Financial Leadership Corporation, is a member of the XBRL US Communications Steering Committee and a voting member of the international XBRL GL Working Group.
Now that the SEC-mandated XBRL phase-in has been announced, what can we expect? For the next three years in the U.S. there will be well-deserved attention paid to complying with the SEC’s requirements. Simultaneously, XBRL implementations will continue to flourish globally. Applications of XBRL will be manifested that have not yet been invented. In short, the XBRL revolution will continue to gain momentum.
Revolutions often start at grassroots levels. The beginning of XBRL was no different but the technology was quickly harnessed by regulators, tax authorities, and stock exchanges around the world. In the relatively near future, though, the benefits of XBRL will accrue more fully to the grassroots, that is, individual organizations, investors, and other stakeholders in the business reporting supply chain.
How will all of this happen? One of the primary models for disruptive technologies from Silicon Valley is to share/publicize the new technology and have a low barrier to entry. Downstream products and services that advance the technology get developed and monetized. By its nature, XBRL provides a low barrier to entry since it is open-source and license-free. The needed ingredient now is broader awareness and understanding of XBRL in the marketplace. This is certainly part of the mission of XBRL US, which is energetically promoting XBRL in numerous business venues around the country. The anticipated SEC mandate itself will open many doors and be a great discussion starter. Real work will continue to be needed at local levels, chambers of commerce, and industry groups. The results of such widespread knowledge will be new XBRL solutions and applications.
Also taking a leading role in the ongoing revolution are solutions that drive the use of XBRL deeper into the corporate DNA. One such solution is the XBRL Global Ledger (GL) Framework. It is a vehicle that can facilitate the preparation of financial statements plus a myriad of tax, sustainability, statistical, statutory, and management reports. XBRL GL is a standardized, generic, and holistic way of representing business facts that flow from transactions and business events. It can be used internationally since it easily adapts to multiple languages and currency requirements, and its generic structure allows it to be readily tailored to specific requirements. To modify an adage, XBRL GL allows one to “think holistically and act locally.”
Another way of driving XBRL into the corporate DNA is already occurring in the software community. Software vendors have begun the process of embedding XBRL capability into their product offerings. XBRL can help companies with their consolidation processes and some vendors have recognized the specific value of XBRL GL as a data exchange format supporting data migration and integration across multiple platforms.
As knowledge of XBRL spreads, the reality of dealing with regulatory requirements will give way to increased activities focused on value creation at the grassroots level. Chairman Cox and the SEC have given the XBRL revolution a great boost. During the next three years, over ten thousand public companies will get to know XBRL. When the XBRL revolution permeates the millions of private businesses in the United States, the value propositions will be enormously exciting.