Category Archives: XBRL

This week, the SEC has finally adopted the 2013 U.S. GAAP Financial Reporting Taxonomy. We been expecting this for a while.

The U.S. GAAP 2013 Taxonomy is available here.

Per Financial Accounting Standards Board (FASB): “The U.S. GAAP Financial Reporting Taxonomy is a list of computer-readable tags in XBRL that allows companies to tag precisely the thousands of pieces of financial data that are included in typical long-form financial statements and related footnote disclosures. The tags allow computers to automatically search for, assemble, and process data so it can be readily accessed and analyzed by investors, analysts, journalists, and regulators.”

Speak with your Vintage Filings account manager if you have questions in regard to your next XBRL filing. You cannot use 2011 GAAP standards anymore, only 2012 and now 2013.

Have a great day. 

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Drip by drip, the Big Data of XBRL is coming to investors.

TheStreet, Inc. announced an agreement with 9W Search, Inc. to provide visitors of The Street.com with access to an innovative financial answer engine – FUELED BY XBRL.

Adoption of XBRL by investors has everyone waiting and watching. In a smart, transparent move, TheStreet has brought XBRL directly to all investors, indiviudal and instituional.

From their press release

“TheStreet is always looking for firms to partner with that can bring value and actionable intelligence to our audience,” said James R. Freiman, Senior Vice President of Business Development & Strategy at TheStreet. “9W Search does a great job of breaking down the elements of a financial report so that our readers don’t have to wade through pages of information to find the data they are looking for.”

About 9W Search

Founded in 2010, 9W Search uses a next generation XBRL-based platform to deliver answers to financial questions wherever the user chooses. 9W Search provides answers to questions about the 15,000 publicly traded companies in the US and 500 ADRs.

Someday ALL financial data will be single-sourced from a company’s filed XBRL. That’s why we continuously help clients make sure they file with accuracy.

Without accuracy, there will be no adoption. 

Have a great day.

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Of the two inevitabilities in life for the CFO of a public company, contrary to popular belief, only one of them is actually fatal.

We speak to clients each day about the lessening the burden of XBRL and if you follow the topic as tightly as we do, XBRL is at a precipice – and the next step is a doozy. It’s time to step up to quality.

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Within XBRL, quality is a complex term – as XBRL is a complex process. For the sake of this blog, I am not speaking of the tactical view of quality – but more the STRATEGIC view. A tactical approach to XBRL quality can be solved by working with the right software or 3^rd party filer (which, coincidentally  Vintage Filings happens to be both.)

A strategic view on XBRL quality – which I feel the true experts like Campbell Pryde, Mike Willis, etc speak on – means that the senior executives at public companies really THINK about XBRL’s importance for investors, not just for their company compliance or legal liability.

Now you’re thinking “hah! what investors?” That’s the entire point.

XBRL will never be useful, broadly, unless the financial reporting teams make “global” choices in regard to selecting taxonomies that are the lowest common denominator across sectors, peers and even competitors. I know the ‘X’ stands for extensible ( I guess ‘EBRL’ did not sound cool) but if you customize your taxonomies to the point of non-comparison, you really have wasted everyone’s time and money.

The only way XBRL will EVER make it onto Wall Street is via the portals like Bloomberg, ThomsonOne and FactSet. That is how we will realize ROI from XBRL. If the data is bad, the portals will never integrate it. Chicken, meet egg.

Have a great day.

The annual XBRL and Financial Analysis Conference, NYC, (hosted by NYSSA, XBRL US and Baruch College) is excellent half-day event featuring analysts, regulators AND the awarding of the winner of the XBRL Challenge contest. Calcbench won in 2012.

How:  Register for this free conference at http://tinyurl.com/algrz8f 

When:  Wednesday, March 27, 2013 from 3:00 to 6:15 pm ET 

Where:  Baruch College, One Bernard Baruch Way, 55 Lexington Ave (enter on 24th or 25th street) Room 14-285, New York City

Keynote presentations plus panel sessions on:

• XBRL Data for Analysis – a Review of Data in Use Today and What’s Ahead
• How Analysts, Investors & Regulators Use Corporate Data: A Changing Landscape
• Analytical Tools on the Market
• XBRL Challenge Applicants

XBRL US invites all XBRL denizens to attend the free half-day conference, which will feature keynote speakers from GMI Ratings and New York University’s Stern School of Business.  Other speakers who will join the panels are from the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, Morgan Stanley, the CFA Institute, Google, Columbia Business School, Rivet Software, Crain’s New York, PwC, WRDS (Wharton Research Data Service), XBRL US and others.

Have a great day.

Once upon a time there was…

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um…scratch that opening..XBRL has hardly been a fairy tale. More like a long and complicated tome.

But here is where our clients are finding a happy(ish) ending – with our fleXBRL program. fleXBRL allows companies to select an XBRL filing process that is just right for their internal processes. This gives CFOs and their financial reporting teams the flexibility to be as hands-on or hands-off in relation to their XBRL prowess.

What is your XBRL workflow appetite?  Please tell us here.

Much like the fabled bear’s bowls of porridge, fleXBRL segments clients by their workflow and, realistically, by their budgets. We work with full spectrum of market-caps and their full spectrum of capabilities.

1. Core: Traditional Excel-based XBRL tagging and filing solution. All tagging, timeline management and final filing executed by Vintage Filings XBRL specialists.
2. Complete: Flexible XBRL tagging process between Vintage Filings and client’s on-staff financial team. Our XBRL Dedicated Accountants execute taxonomy tagging process while clients have real-time web portal oversight to review, directly edit and submit to the SEC at any time up to filing deadline.  
3. Command: 100% self-serve web portal solution for companies with on-staff XBRL specialist(s). XBRL and associated HTML EDGAR files can be submitted to the SEC at any time up to filing deadline.  

Workflow flexibility is what we believed XBRL filing was missing. Many clients are not ready for full DIY, but like the option of easing into a self-service model as they grew more comfortable with understanding taxonomies. Small and micro-caps are rarely going to self-help web filing. They don’t have the people-power.

One clarification.“Hands-off” does not mean “not-responsible.”  Companies are liable for their XBRL quality. “Hands-off” means “let-Vintage-Filings-execute-the-unglamorous-and-burdensome-tactical-labor-so-I can-focus-on-my-company-strategy.”

Have a great day.