Revised XBRL Filing Requirements
- Who Needs to File and Who is Exempted
- Applicable Financial Periods
- Minimum Requirement List (for Full Set of Financial Statements in XBRL)
- Mapping Principles (for Full Set of Financial Statements in XBRL)
- Financial Statements Highlights
- Help Resources
Since 1 November 2007, companies required to file financial statements with ACRA, are filing financial statements in XBRL. With effect from 3 March 2014, the revised XBRL filing requirements under the BizFinx system apply. This chapter covers the revised XBRL filing requirements including detailed information on the following:
Singapore incorporated companies (unlimited or limited by shares) which are required to file their financial statements with ACRA, will file a full set of financial statements in XBRL format, according to a minimum requirement list within the ACRA Taxonomy.
Filing of Option B (Partial XBRL), a filing option under the previous XBRL system (FS Manager), will no longer be available.
The table below sets out the filing requirements for various types of companies:
Type of Company |
Filing of Financial Statements |
Public / Private companies (limited/unlimited by shares), except those under (a) and (b) |
Full set of XBRL financial statements |
- specific companies regulated by MAS, i.e. commercial banks, merchant banks, licensed insurers, finance companies regulated by MAS
(Note: Only the above specified types of companies regulated by MAS are exempted from
filing of a full set of XBRL financial statements. Other types of companies
regulated by MAS, e.g. money changers, are required to file a full set of XBRL financial
statements.)
|
Financial statements highlights (FSH) in XBRL format + PDF copy of financial statements |
b. companies allowed by law to prepare accounts in accordance with accounting standards other than SFRS, SFRS for Small Entities and IFRS |
FSH in XBRL format + PDF copy of financial statements |
Solvent exempt private companies (EPCs) |
Exempted from filing financial statements, but are encouraged to file with following options:
- full set of XBRL financial statements or
- FSH in XBRL format
|
Insolvent EPCs |
Options of:
- full set of XBRL financial statements; or
- FSH in XBRL format + PDF copy of financial statements
|
Companies limited by guarantee |
PDF copy of financial statements
(XBRL filing not required) |
Foreign companies and their local branches |
PDF copy of financial statements
(XBRL filing not required) |
The revised XBRL filing requirements are applicable for companies filing financial statements with periods ending on or after 30 April 2007.
Companies filing financial statements relating to financial periods ending before 30 April 2007 will continue to file their financial statements in PDF format and their financial highlights in respect of the financial statements in their Annual Return (AR).
Applicable only for companies filing full set of financial statements in XBRL, the minimum requirement list is a set of elements within ACRA Taxonomy which companies are required to file if the information is available in the financial statements. Companies may voluntarily choose to submit more information in XBRL format than the minimum requirement list.
The minimum requirement list is designed on a needs-driven basis, which means elements are only included for collection if they are sought after by consumers of financial information. A comprehensive cost-benefit analysis weighing the interests of all stakeholders was conducted before the minimum requirement list was derived.
The minimum requirement list as explained in the table below comprises a combination of:
- a text block element to allow companies to submit their entire set of financial statements; and
- detailed information elements to allow companies to submit information within individual sections of the financial statements.
Information Required |
Minimum Requirement List |
Text block information |
- An entire set of financial statements submitted using a single text block element
|
Detailed information (Statutory reports) |
- Statement by directors
- Independent auditors’ report
|
Detailed information (Primary financial statements) |
- Statement of financial position (note 1)
- Income statement (note 1)
- Statement of cash flows (note 2)
|
Detailed information (Disclosure notes) |
- Corporate and general information
- Trade and other receivables (note 1)(note 3)
- Trade and other payables (note 1)(note 3)
- Provisions (note 1)(note 3)
- Share capital (note1)(note 4)
- Revenue (note 1)
- Government grants (note 1)
- Employee benefits expense (note 2)
- Operating segments (note 1)
- Property, plant and equipment (note 1)(note 4)
- Selected income and expense (note 2)
|
The applicability of each section listed above for submission will depend on the set of financial statements and the disclosures within. To facilitate efficient preparation, preparers are advised to understand their financial statements to determine the relevant sections for submission.
Information required within the minimum requirement list as well as the full ACRA Taxonomy is available in the
ACRA Taxonomy 2016 templates (Excel, 486KB).
To prepare the XBRL financial statements, preparers will need to do mapping by matching information within the AGM financial statements (e.g. the amount of fixed assets) to a relevant concept within the Taxonomy (e.g. Property, Plant and Equipment).
For this reason, people in the company who are most familiar with the financial statements should be involved in mapping financial statements information to taxonomy concepts. To ensure the accuracy of the financial statements submitted in XBRL format to ACRA, this mapping should also be reviewed by the company before submission.
The mapping principles required for numeric concepts (the most common type of concepts found in the taxonomy) and Disclosure of complete set of financial statements [text block] are as below:
- Submit the complete set of Annual General Meeting (AGM) financial statements using Disclosure of complete set of financial statements [text block].
- Map every line item within the AGM financial statements to the relevant concept within the taxonomy when they are equivalent in accounting terms.
- Aggregate together line items within the AGM financial statements that represent sub-components of a relevant concept within taxonomy. Create a footnote for the concept to explain the aggregation.
- When a line item within the AGM financial statements represents an aggregation of several concepts in the taxonomy, disclose the breakdown as required by the concepts. Where the breakdown is impractical or not disclosed within the AGM financial statements, the preparer must map the entire amount to one of the concepts that made up to the line item based on the best-fit principle.
- Classify line item that does not have any linkage with any concept within the taxonomy under “others” category in the respective sections of the financial statements. Create a footnote to explain the breakdown of the line items classified under others.
For more information on revised XBRL filing requirements, including mapping principles, please refer to the Preparers’ Guide (PDF, 951KB).
Companies exempted from filing the full set of financial statements in XBRL, are generally required to file financial statements highlights (FSH) in XBRL and the
filing requirements for the different types of companies are set out hereto.
Comprising approximately 50 data elements, FSH is a set of salient financial and non-financial information. Learn more about preparing and filing FSH through the
FSH guide (PDF, 936KB) and
templates (Excel, 40.3KB).
Training and Subsidy
To get training on the revised XBRL filing requirements and the BizFinx filing system, you can sign up for:
Free training seminars
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Subscribe to ACRA News Alert to receive updates on the
upcoming training seminars
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Training courses
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Subsidy for BizFinx training courses has been phased out by 31
December 2016. Participants may continue to engage the training providers for
training courses based on the training providers’ applicable rates.
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Click
here for detailed information on the help resources available.