Introduction to XBRL

• What is XBRL?
• How XBRL Works
• Benefits of XBRL

Understanding Taxonomy

• What is Taxonomy?
• Background on ACRA Taxonomy
• Download ACRA Taxonomy
• Illustrative Financial Statements
• What is an Instance Document?
• Changes to Singapore Financial Reporting Standards Affecting ACRA Taxonomy after 31 October 2007 *New*

Scope of XBRL Financial Statements Filings *New*

• Affected Singapore Incorporated Companies
• Excluded Singapore Incorporated Companies
• Filing Requirements

Creating XBRL Financial Statements

• Workflow Overview of Full XBRL Preparation and Filing Using FS Manager
• Creating XBRL Instance Document
  • What is FS Manager?
  • Accessing FS Manager
  • User Guide
  • Sample Financial Statements Created Using FS Manager
• Software Products Compatible with ACRA Taxonomy
• Common Findings on Review of XBRL Financial Statements Filings *New*

Filing XBRL Financial Statements *New*

Related Practice Directions

Available Help Resources

Training Information

Feedback

Introduction to XBRL

What is XBRL?

XBRL is a language for the electronic communication of business and financial data which is revolutionising business reporting around the world.  It provides major benefits in the preparation, analysis and communication of business information.  It offers cost savings, greater efficiency and improved accuracy and reliability to all those involved in supplying or using financial data.

XBRL stands for eXtensible Business Reporting Language.  It is one of a family of "XML" languages which is becoming a standard means of communicating information between businesses and on the internet. 

XBRL is being developed by an international non-profit consortium of approximately 450 major companies, organisations and government agencies.  It is an open standard, free of licence fees.  It is already being put to practical use in a number of countries and implementations of XBRL are growing rapidly around the world. (Source: http://www.xbrl.org/) 

Under XML, identifying tags are applied to items of data so that they can be processed efficiently by computer software. XBRL is a powerful and flexible version of XML which has been defined specifically to meet the requirements of business and financial information.  It enables unique identifying tags to be applied to items of financial data, such as ‘net profit’.  However, these are more than simple identifiers.  They provide a range of information about the item, such as whether it is a monetary item, percentage or fraction.  XBRL allows labels in any language to be applied to items, as well as accounting references or other subsidiary information. 

XBRL can show how items are related to one another.  It can thus represent how they are calculated.  It can also identify whether they fall into particular groupings for organisational or presentational purposes.  Most importantly, XBRL is easily extensible, so companies and other organisations can adapt it to meet a variety of special requirements.

The rich and powerful structure of XBRL allows very efficient handling of business data by computer software.  It supports all the standard tasks involved in compiling, storing and using business data. Such information can be converted into XBRL by suitable mapping processes or generated in XBRL by software.  It can then be searched, selected, exchanged or analysed by computer, or published for ordinary viewing. (Source: http://www.xbrl.org/)

XBRL works by adding “information about information”, through the use of “metadata” or “descriptive data” (tags). This allows computers to relate to or communicate with one another without human intervention.

Benefits of XBRL

XBRL has been adopted or is in the process of being adopted by many regulators and stock exchanges in many countries. Adopting XBRL is also part of ACRA’s move towards a more transparent and a better informed business environment. ACRA also seeks to achieve the following strategic goals with XBRL:

• Unlock new value from financial information filed with ACRA - With XBRL, corporate financial information is more readily available for use by consumers of financial information as opposed to the current PDF, thus enabling, for example, an effective access and analysis of financial data. Financial ratios and industry trend analyses are potentially information that could be made available to the public in quick time;
  
• Facilitate a “one-stop” portal for businesses - In time, it may be possible for financial statements to be filed only once with a central filing Government agency for transfers to other regulatory agencies with similar filing arrangements; and
  
• Strengthen regulatory vigilance - ACRA is tapping on XBRL to improve the efficiency and the effectiveness of its regulatory functions.

Understanding Taxonomy

What is Taxonomy?

A XBRL Taxonomy is the dictionary which the language uses. These are the categorisation schemes which define the specific tags for individual items of data (such as “Revenue”). National jurisdictions have different accounting regulations, so each may have its own taxonomy for financial reporting. Many different organisations, including regulators, specific industries or even companies, may also require taxonomies to cover their own business reporting needs. (Source: http://www.xbrl.org/)

Background on ACRA Taxonomy

In developing the ACRA taxonomy, ACRA worked with its consultants, relevant professionals and the Institute of Certified Public Accountants of Singapore (ICPAS) to identify key financial items to be included in the ACRA taxonomy. The ACRA taxonomy is primarily based on the requirements under Singapore Financial Reporting Standards (FRS), and closely modeled after the International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS) taxonomy, with some modifications to cater for flexibility and ease of usage.

The ACRA taxonomy is based on the premise that no company should tag any data or extend any taxonomy and that industry specific data should be in the single taxonomy if important. ACRA taxonomy achieves this by relying on the self-extending taxonomy concept that allows for core data that is common to most entities and of interest to most users to be captured specifically and for other data to be captured under a flexible classification that will allow for efficient manual extraction. 

The self-extending taxonomy concept utilises a simple user-described tuple structure to capture in a single element the exact description used by the company in its financial statements as well as that specific value associated with it. The ACRA self-extending taxonomy concept eliminates taxonomy extensions thereby eliminating the need for companies to acquire taxonomy building software or to even understand the meaning of a taxonomy. Through this, it also eliminates the need for the company to tag data or understand XBRL instance documents. Essentially, a company simply inputs data into FS Manager that is tagged to the ACRA taxonomy. If a specific item is not present in the ACRA taxonomy, a company then describes that specific item based upon its classification using the various user-described fields in the ACRA taxonomy.

Download ACRA Taxonomy

To download ACRA XBRL taxonomy in PDF, please click here.

To download ACRA XBRL taxonomy in XML format, please click here.

Illustrative Financial Statements

FS Manager can be used to prepare financial statements which are required to be laid before the Annual General Meeting (AGM). A hardcopy of the financial statements prepared can be printed out and used for purposes of the AGM. By doing so, companies need only prepare the financial statements once using FS Manager for purposes of the AGM and subsequent filing with ACRA.

For companies which do not wish to use FS Manager to prepare the financial statements to be laid before their AGM, it would be advisable for such companies to instruct their preparers to draw up their financial statements in accordance with the ACRA taxonomy. This is so as to facilitate the subsequent filing of the financial statements in XBRL format using FS Manager. To assist companies in this respect, ACRA has drawn up a set of Illustrative Financial Statements as a guide for preparation of financial statements. 

To download ACRA Illustrative Financial Statements in PDF, please click here.

What is an Instance Document?

An XBRL instance document is an XML file, designed to be read only by computers, that contains business reporting information and represents a collection of financial facts using tags from one or more XBRL taxonomies. Examples of instance documents include a set of financial statement or an earnings release encoded in XBRL format.

Changes to Singapore Financial Reporting Standards Affecting ACRA Taxonomy after 31 October 2007

ACRA has reviewed the Singapore Financial Reporting Standards (FRS) adopted by the Singapore Accounting Standards Council after 31 October 2007.

Please click here to access the list of FRS that would affect the ACRA Taxonomy after 31 October 2007 and the issues for preparers of financial statements to take note. The revised / new FRS that has an impact to the current ACRA Taxonomy is FRS 1 Presentation of Financial Statements(Revised) [FRS 1(R)]. Application of FRS 1(R) is effective for annual periods beginning on or after 1 January 2009. Earlier application is permitted.