In: Accounting
The SEC issued an order that allows voluntary filing using Inline XBRL through
March 2020. Read the introduction page and the AICPA’s comment letter, and tour
around the mock filing. Answer the following questions:
a. What is Inline XBRL?
b. What are the benefits of having Inline XBRL?
c. What is your favorite feature of the Inline XBRL Viewer? Please describe.
a.
iXBRL, or Inline XBRL, is an open standard that enables a single document to provide both human-readable and structured, machine-readable data. iXBRL is used by millions of companies around the world to prepare financial statements in a format that provides the structured data that regulators and analysts require, whilst allowing preparers to retain full control over the layout and presentation of their report.
iXBRL takes the HTML standard that is used to power the world’s web pages, and embeds extra “tags” into it that give meaning to the figures and statements in a format that can be understood by a computer.
b.
The Inline XBRL format has the potential to provide a number of benefits to companies and users of the information.
c.
New tools and technologies, and the related SEC mandates and guidance, are ultimately moving disclosure obligations away from the paper filing to a more modern, information-rich format that can help facilitate transparency and use of financial information.