XBRL

You may have heard about XBRL recently and how it will impact the financial reporting for all public companies. The SEC has mandated that all public companies and foreign private issuers report their financial information in XBRL format.

What is XBRL?

eXtensible Business Reporting Language (XBRL) is an interactive data format that allows financial statement information to be directly downloaded into spreadsheets, analyzed in a variety of ways using other software and used within investment models in other software formats. The interactive data will be provided as an exhibit to the EDGAR periodic and current reports as well as registration statements. The mandate is intended to make financial information easier to be analyzed by investors and to improve the quality of information. The financial reporting in interactive format requires a standard list of tags. These tags are similar to definitions in an ordinary dictionary and they cover a variety of financial concepts that can be read and understood by software applications.

When is the mandate happening?

First fiscal period ending on or after June 15, 2009 - Domestic and foreign large accelerated filers that use U.S. GAAP and have a worldwide public common equity float above $5 billion.

First fiscal period ending on or after June 15, 2010 - All other domestic and foreign large accelerated filers using U.S. GAAP.

First fiscal period ending on or after June 15, 2011 – All remaining filers using U.S. GAAP, including smaller reporting companies, and all foreign private issuers.

(For example, if your fiscal year end is December 31, 2010, the first periodic report which will require filing the financials in XBRL format will be the June 30, 2011 10-Q due August 15, 2011.)

How can Highland help?

In addition to converting your periodic and annual reports into the EDGAR approved format, we will also be able to convert your financial statements to the SEC approved XBRL format. We will transmit the XBRL files with the EDGAR document in one submission to the SEC. We will work with you and/or your accounting team to ensure the tagging is correct. The XBRL process is more labor intensive than the EDGAR format so it is important that companies prepare well before the mandate goes into effect to ensure they are filed timely and meet the SEC’s requirements

Contact us today to learn more about the XBRL process and our conversion/filing rates!