February
2010
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Article
The Financial Accounting Foundation announced it will take on responsibility for the ongoing maintenance of the XBRL U.S. GAAP Financial Reporting Taxonomy. Its activities will focus on updating the taxonomy for changes in U.S. GAAP, best practices in taxonomy extensions, and technical enhancements.The taxonomy is a list of computerreadable terms in XBRL that allows companies to tag the thousands of pieces of financial data that are included in typical longform financial statements and related footnote disclosures.
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February
2010
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BY
Jon Bartley, CPA, Ph.D., Y.S. Al Chen, CPA, Ph.D., Eileen Taylor, CPA, Ph.D.
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Article
Following three years of voluntary XBRL submissions, the SEC’s mandatory requirements for XBRL financial report submissions began phasing in June 15, 2009. As with any new process, companies can easily underestimate the challenges posed by this complex reporting technology and make mistakes along the way. This article describes common errors appearing in Voluntary Filing Program (VFP) Forms 10K that continue to occur under the SEC’s mandatory Form 10Q submissions and discusses how they can be prevented.
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January
2010
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BY
ALEXANDRA DEFELICE
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Article
A majority of U.S. public companies that plan to file their financial statements in XBRL are actively preparing to do so and have at least a basic knowledge of the extensible business reporting language, according to a survey by the AICPA and XBRL US. The “XBRL Preparedness Survey,” conducted online in November found that 93 of the 215 respondents (90 of whom work for U.S.
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November
2009
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BY
Alexandra DeFelice
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Article
When reporting financials in XBRL, companies need to take responsibility by documenting the reasons items are tagged the way they are and allocating ample time for management review—even if they outsource the data tagging to a third party, according to panelists at the 2009 XBRL US National Conference that took place in New York this week.
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November
2009
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BY
MATTHEW G. LAMOREAUX, PAUL BONNER
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Article
Robert R. Harris takes a large view of the profession. He believes the economic crisis, global convergence of standards, a worldwide concern about the depletion of nonrenewable natural resources, and generational changes all present unprecedented opportunities for CPAs. Harris, who was elected to a oneyear term as chairman of the AICPA during the fall Council meeting in October, says he is concerned that young people don’t fully appreciate the innovation and breadth associated with the CPA profession—a view he hopes to foster during his year as chairman.
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October
2009
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Article
FASB on Monday announced that it has added new XBRL functionality to its Accounting Standards Codification Web site. “The new XBRL functionality provided by the Codification Web site will help entities as they prepare or plan to prepare XBRL financial statements using the U.S. Financial Reporting Taxonomy,” said FASB Chairman Robert Herz in a press release.
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August
2009
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Article
The XBRL U.S. GAAP Taxonomy has been updated to reflect the FASB Accounting Standards Codification and is effective for interim and annual periods ending after Sept.15, 2009, FASB and XBRL US announced Tuesday. The codification, which became effective July 1, reorganizes thousands of U.S. GAAP pronouncements into roughly 90 accounting topics using a consistent structure.
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August
2009
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Article
The AICPA’s Auditing Standards Board issued Statement of Position (SOP) 091, Performing AgreedUpon Procedures Engagements That Address the Completeness, Accuracy, or Consistency of XBRLTagged Data. This interpretative SOP, drafted with the assistance of the XBRL Assurance Task Force of the AICPA Assurance Services Executive Committee, provides guidance regarding the application of Statements on Standards for Attestation Engagements—attestation standards established by the AICPA—to engagements in which a practitioner performs and reports on agreedupon procedures related to the completeness, accuracy or consistency of XBRLtagged data.
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July
2009
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Article
FASB introduced a project Wednesday that is intended to make financial statement disclosures more useful, organized and consistent, and less redundant. The project will focus on developing a framework for improved GAAP disclosures, according to FASB Chairman Robert Herz. The vision for the framework is for it to allow companies and other entities to focus on making more coherent disclosures in their annual reporting package, move away from what some assert has become a compliance exercise and perhaps facilitate XBRL electronic tagging of information.
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March
2009
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Article
The SEC adopted new rules that will require public companies to provide an XBRL version of their SEC filings. Under the new rules, approximately 500 of the largest U.S. public companies and foreign private issuers listed with the SEC will be required to provide financial information using XBRL beginning in 2009.
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