Ventana Research Releases Report Detailing Real-World XBRL Case Studies

UBmatrix, Inc., the leading provider of XBRL information exchange solutions, today announced that its clients have been featured in a new research report published by Ventana Research. The report, "XBRL is Not Just for Analysts and Regulators," provides real-world case studies to illustrate the breadth of XBRL usage at global companies.

"Within just a few years almost all large companies will be using XBRL, and not just because the SEC mandates it for filing their financial statements. XBRL will play a broad role in the exchange of financial information and all forms of external reporting, one that goes well beyond its original purpose as a tool for securities analysts and financial regulators," said Robert Kugel, SVP and Research Director at Ventana Research.

The report notes that regulatory organizations around the world have turned to XBRL as a reporting standard, which has accelerated the usage of XBRL in general. However, the report notes that XBRL usage extends well beyond regulatory reporting and that it expects "accelerated adoption" over the next few years.

The report details the "broad role" of XBRL, using four global case studies to illustrate what has been achieved by XBRL in improving the speed, efficiency and value of financial information. The case studies include:

FDIC: Improving Regulatory Processes

The first case study illustrates how businesses are able to speed up the process of collecting information from different places and applying a uniform data consistency check.

The FDIC requires all banks to file quarterly call reports, which contain each bank's balance sheet, income statement and other supervisory information. Before the XBRL-based system was adopted, a typical quarterly call report would contain thousands of basic mathematical errors within the filings and business logical edits. Identifying and correcting of these errors took considerable time for both the bank and FDIC, which lengthened the period needed to publish the data.

However, using XBRL, all data carries a tag with a uniformly applied set of characteristics and can be delivered in a consistent and dependable fashion. With XBRL, errors were substantially reduced, as was the amount of time needed to process the information and make it available.

The MIX: Going Beyond GAAP Financials

The second case study illustrates how XBRL can allow organizations to manage data from a large number of disparate sources more easily and effectively. The report details how the Microfinance Information Exchange is using XBRL to pull together accounting and other important data for measuring the effectiveness of these innovative lending institutions worldwide.

The Microfinance Information Exchange (MIX) was created to increase the financial transparency and accountability of microfinance organizations. These organizations can join to make information about their activities public and to be able to compare their performance with other comparable organizations.

In order to ensure that the information exchange is as clean as possible, MIX now uses XBRL-tagged spreadsheets to collect and aggregate a wide set of data from an ever increasing number of member institutions. XBRL makes it possible to maintain data fidelity in pulling information from a spreadsheet into MIX's systems and makes it possible to expand the range of data that can be collected as requirements evolve.

Deloitte Australia: Speeding Operations and Saving Clients Money

The third case study illustrates how Deloitte Australia uses XBRL to help collect client data, cut the cost of its auditing process and give clients financial statements in a form they will be able to use for their own tax and regulatory filings.

Deloitte Australia is currently engaged in a XBRL program to prepare financial statements for their clients. The program automates their accounting statement data into XBRL format, which is expected to substantially reduce processing costs by converting client data submissions into a standard, useful format.

The second aim of the program is to facilitate and standardize all future activities, such as auditing and creating financial statements, as well as filing tax and other regulatory documents with the national government, which already employs XBRL.

Banc Accord: From Regulatory Burden to Benefit

The final case study illustrates how Umanis, a leading European technology consulting firm, is helping its banking clients make better use of the data they supply to their regulatory agency, La Commission Bancaire/ Banque de France.

As a result of having banks and other lending institutions increase the amount and type of information they provide to regulators, XBRL plays a key role in being able to handle this inundation of data, especially in Europe. It also allows for financial institutions to create a fast, more efficient management reporting system.

Banc Accord in France is currently exploring the use of XBRL format for its regulatory data, which would connect the accounting information with the reporting requirements in a manner that ensures consistency and conformity with the evolving national reporting requirements.