SEC’s Office of Interactive Disclosure Urges Public Comment

On Dec. 5, 2007, the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission's (SEC) Office of Interactive Disclosure announced the release for public comment of computer labels that will make financial disclosures available in interactive data form instead of text form.

The interactive data is encoded in a format known as eXtensible Business Reporting Language (XBRL), which allows companies to map their financial information to a set of computer codes (“a taxonomy”) that represent U.S. GAAP accounting standards.

The SEC's Office of Interactive Disclosure, created in October to lead the transformation to interactive financial reporting by public companies, encourages broad public review of the taxonomy and the corresponding instructions about how to create a financial statement in XBRL.

The SEC will use the initial financial statements prepared using the new taxonomy to help it update its electronic filing system to seamlessly accept and render the filings.

A free taxonomy review tool is publicly available on the XBRL-US website along with other information, including the nine software companies whose products are compatible with the new draft taxonomy. The public comment period ends on April 5, 2008.

Read the Dec. 5, 2007 SEC press release here.

Other Guidance From:

Deloitte (Heads Up)

KPMG (Defining Issues)

Prepared Dec. 6, 2007 by Bill Sinnett, Director of Research, Financial Executives Research Foundation (FERF). This summary does not represent FEI or FERF opinion unless specifically noted above.