Dead tree reports cannot deliver XBRL

Just in case you are still in the dark over what XBRL is, and how it will eventually change the way information is sourced from electronic documents...

Specific items of information in an electronic document such as an annual report are described and identified by XBRL tags. The tags are standardised, enabling data from multiple documents to be analysed and compared quickly and easily, even in different languages. This suggests even less reliance on paper-based annual reports and more interest in online HTML reports.

Analysts will get audited data in a consistent format which will take away much of the hard work. They will like it because it enables much deeper disclosure of reporting information.

Analyst take-up and adaptation of their internal processes relies on sector-specific national then global take up of XBRL. This requires of regulators from around the world the foresight to plan its introduction and collaborate on a wide scale. Until there is a wide base of XBRL formatted information out there, analysts do not presently have the incentive to take much notice and change their research activities to leverage XBRL benefits.

United Kingdom
In March 2006 the UK government announced the use of XBRL for corporate tax returns and supporting accounts should be mandatory. From April 2011 all companies making a Company Tax Return must file their tax returns online using a specified XBRL data standard. This will require some determined planning on the part of these companies.

USA
The SEC in the USA already have around 500 companies providing interactive data reports for fiscal periods ending on or after 15 June 2009. More will be doing the same over the next two years.

Unusually, Singapore, India and China have a head start over the US.

PricewaterhouseCoopers has been at the forefront of XBRL development and have plentiful advice for companies on how companies should approach integrating XBRL into their reporting process.
www.pwc.com/gx/en/xbrl/index.jhtml

So where does that leave our dwindling tree population? Though there is much pleasure to be gained from receiving a well designed and printed annual report to satisfy your investment decision - which will eventually be discarded or hopefully consigned to an appropriate paper recycling resource - there comes a point where we have to ask ourselves as we drive around in our new hybrid vehicles “why are we consuming vast amounts of energy and resources to produce something which is also available online in a more information rich and accessible format?”

In the words of Al Gore...
“The climate crisis... is our greatest opportunity to lift global consciousness to a higher level”.


Tony Heywood is a Fellow of the Design Institute of Australia, founder of Heywood Innovation in Sydney Australia with affiliates in Melbourne, Gold Coast, London, Singapore and Mumbai.

View some of Heywood’s work on www.heywood.com.au

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