Experts Interviewed on the Reality of XBRL and Structured Data for Financial Reporting: Whitepaper Now Available
Greater transparency, lower filing costs, reduced risks and better data quality - these long-promised benefits of XBRL are finally becoming a reality.

NEW YORK, Oct. 27, 2016 /PRNewswire/ Vintage, the capital markets, corporate services and institutional & fund services division of PR Newswire, has released a new whitepaper that chronicles the State-of-the-XBRL-State today.

Experts Interviewed on the Reality of XBRL and Structured Data for Financial Reporting: Whitepaper Now Available. Greater transparency, lower filing costs, reduced risks and better data quality - these long-promised benefits of XBRL are finally becoming a reality.

Download here: http://e.prnewswire.com/XBRL-gives-issuers-the-final-word.html 

When the XBRL data reporting standard became mandatory in 2009, optimism reigned that structured data would allow for vast analytical possibilities. Businesses, regulators, and investors would be able to compare data across public companies at the push of a button.

Reality quickly set in, however. The US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) did not enforce high data quality. Filers created huge numbers of confusing extensions. And data providers often ignored the filings as a result.

Thankfully, in recent years, the situation has improved dramatically. "Through initiatives such as the XBRL US Data Quality Committee, the integrity of business information filed through XBRL has become significantly better. Slowly but surely, the huge potential of the reporting language is beginning to be realized," commented Liam Power, President at Vintage, a PR Newswire division.

As the XBRL landscape continues its swift evolution, we discussed the latest developments with five experts – as well as with a representative of the SEC.

  • Pranav Ghai (Pranav Ghai ), CEO & Co-founder, Calcbench
  • Hudson Hollister, Executive Director, The Data Coalition
  • Jaret Klekota, Executive Director, XBRL Services Leader, EY
  • Campbell Pryde, CEO, XBRL US
  • Ilya Vadeiko, Executive Director, FinDynamics, Inc.
  • Mike Willis, US Securities and Exchange Commission

At the same time, data aggregators are starting to make full use of XBRL data, having found ways to clean up errors and manage extensions. This has opened up a great treasure trove of information for investors and businesses.

Perhaps the most critical development of 2016 has been the announcement by the SEC in June that it would allow companies to use Inline XBRL (or iXBRL) to file their quarterly and annual financial statements. This version allows companies to file financial information in a single document, instead of keeping the traditional and XBRL versions separate. Eventually, the hope is that this will reduce complexity for filers, as well as the risk of error. With the SEC's decision to accept the iXBRL format in financial reporting, we ask the experts how they think this will affect filing for US listed companies in the future.

About Vintage
Vintage, a PR Newswire division, is a top-three provider of full-service regulatory compliance and shareholder communications services, delivered across our three practice areas: Capital Markets, Corporate Services and Institutional & Fund Services. Founded in 2002 and acquired by PR Newswire in 2007, Vintage has evolved to become the industry's intelligent value choice. We deliver a flexible balance of people, facilities and technology to ensure that regulatory compliance and shareholder communications processes are efficient, transparent and painless. Services include IPO registrations, transactions, virtual data rooms, EDGAR & XBRL filing, typesetting, financial printing and investor relations websites.

About PR Newswire
PR Newswire, a Cision company, is the premier global provider of multimedia platforms and distribution that marketers, corporate communicators, sustainability officers, public affairs and investor relations officers leverage to engage key audiences. Having pioneered the commercial news distribution industry over 60 years ago, PR Newswire today provides end-to- end solutions to produce, optimize and target content -- and then distribute and measure results. Combining the world's largest multi-channel, multi-cultural content distribution and optimization network with comprehensive workflow tools and platforms, PR Newswire powers the stories of organizations around the world. PR Newswire serves tens of thousands of clients from offices in the Americas, Europe, Middle East, Africa and Asia-Pacific regions.
Cision is a leading global media intelligence company, serving the complete workflow of today's communication professionals.

Media Contact:
Bradley H. Smith
Director of Marketing, IR and Compliance Services
PR Newswire & Vintage 
+1 201.942.7157 
bradley.smith@prnewswire.com

Photo - http://photos.prnewswire.com/prnh/20161027/433264-INFO

SOURCE Vintage