The Interoperable Taxonomy Architecture project (ITA) recently published The Global Filing Manual (GFM), the first set of aligned XBRL filing rules for global use. The GFM provides guidance on the preparation, filing, and validation of XBRL filings created using the IFRS, EDINET (Japan), or US GAAP taxonomies.
Maciej Piechocki kindly agreed to answer a few questions about the GFM and the ITA’s work. Maciej is a Project Manager at the IFRS Foundation, responsible for the development of the IFRS Taxonomy as well as coordinating other global IFRS and XBRL initiatives including the ITA project. He is also a member of the XBRL International Standards Board.
[The IFRS Foundation is an independent, not-for-profit private sector organization working in the public interest. Its main mission, through its standard-setting body, the IASB, is to develop a single set of high-quality, understandable, enforceable, and globally accepted international financial reporting standards — IFRSs. The opinions expressed here do not necessarily reflect the views of the IASB or the IFRS Foundation.]
1. Could you tell us about the ITA project, including its origins, participants, and objectives?
The ITA is a joint initiative between the European Commission, the Financial Services Agency of Japan, the IFRS Foundation XBRL team, and the SEC. The project was established in 2007 and it aims to converge the XBRL architectures of three taxonomies: EDINET, IFRS, and US GAAP. It is hoped that this architectural convergence will support the analysis and comparison of financial data reported in XBRL format, by enabling software vendors to develop applications for IFRS, Japan GAAP, and US GAAP reporting based on a single XBRL architecture.
The ITA project has made significant progress in aligning the architectures of the EDINET, IFRS, and US GAAP taxonomies, and has also published guidance on how to prepare, file, and check (validate) XBRL documents created using these three taxonomies. The GFM is the first significant effort to align XBRL filing rules for global use and is intended to encourage the consistent implementation of the aligned framework.
Collectively, IFRS, Japan GAAP, and US GAAP are used by 85% of worldwide market capitalization. The bodies involved in the development and implementation of these taxonomies — whether regulators or standard-setters — have the responsibility to ensure the cross-border interoperability of corporate reporting, especially while XBRL adoption around the world is growing. A single, consistent XBRL taxonomy architecture will lead to greater interoperability, which will support global software developers and lead to improved efficiency and a higher degree of acceptance in international markets.
The ITA does not aim, however, to ensure global comparability and alignment for all XBRL reporting. The focus of the ITA is reporting for financial statements where companies provide filings and not just instance documents. The fundamental use case that guides the ITA’s alignment efforts is the publication of a company’s financial statements and the consumption of those financial statements by a broad range of users and software applications.
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