ACCPAC lauds first US specification of XBRL initiative; urges rapid global migration

ACCPAC International, Inc., a division of Computer Associates' interBiz group, has praised the release of the initial U.S. financial reporting specification of the XBRL Committee, an industry body creating a standards-based method of preparing, publishing, exchanging and analysing financial statements in a variety of formats.

At the same time, ACCPAC urged the Committee to move quickly to push for adoption of XBRL specifications worldwide. ACCPAC, a member of the XBRL Steering Committee, has already begun to work closely with other committee members in developing Extensible Business Reporting Language (XBRL) specifications that integrate well with the financial practices and taxonomies of other countries and regional entities.

It is anticipated that this will facilitate rapid global adoption of specifications that parallel those being adopted in the U.S. The XBRL Committee's new international outreach arm - XBRL.org - held its first public Pacific Rim meeting at ACCPAC's Singapore offices yesterday.

"ACCPAC is pleased to contribute to the advancement of XBRL," said Jeremy Waterman, managing director of ACCPAC Africa "The XBRL initiative is an important advancement in business reporting that will clearly benefit our customer base as the demand for online financial information grows."

The just-released XBRL for Financial Statements specification for U.S. companies allows accountants, financial advisors, analysts and investors to receive financial information quickly, reliably and consistently via the Internet.

Several languages, such as HTML (Hypertext Markup Language) and XML (Extensible Markup Language) have been created to facilitate transmission of data over the Internet. XBRL is a derivative of XML for companies that want to publish financial statements in a digital format.

A key benefit of XBRL is that financial information is generated once, and then can be accessed in a variety of forms such as HTML documents for a company's Web site. Interested users of financial information, such as analysts and investors, will be able to retrieve and organize financial data in a Web browser. Potential applications include XBRL for taxes, regulatory filings, and accounting and business reports, as well as being used in literature produced by authoritative accounting organizations such as the AICPA.

"XBRL helps companies, analysts, investors, and other audiences make better informed financial and management decisions, and leverage the capabilities of the Internet to facilitate the exchange of financial information," said Barry Melancon, president and CEO of the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants (AICPA). "XBRL provides an efficient and reliable means of information exchange without changing existing accounting standards. And, because it is based upon standardized, underlying data tags, XBRL does not require a company to disclose any additional information beyond that which it normally discloses in its current financial statements."

The XBRL Steering Committee includes members from the AICPA and other professional accounting bodies around the world, representatives of the Big Five accounting firms, all major ERP and mid-market software vendors, governmental agencies worldwide, and other interested industry firms.

For more information about XBRL, please visit www.XBRL.org