Revised XBRL Filing Requirements

1. Who Needs to File and Who is Exempted
2. Applicable Financial Periods
3. Minimum Requirement List (for Full Set of Financial Statements in XBRL)
4. Mapping Principles (for Full Set of Financial Statements in XBRL)
5. Financial Statements Highlights
6. Help Resources

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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 BizFin^x system apply. This chapter covers the revised XBRL filing requirements including detailed information on the following:

(a) Who Needs to File and Who is Exempted

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)

(b) Applicable Financial Periods

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).

(c) Minimum Requirement List (for Full Set of Financial Statements in XBRL)

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)

Note 1: Preparers are required to submit the complete information or breakdown in accordance to the Minimum Requirement List for the section. Concepts for “others” may be available to facilitate the disclosure of full information or breakdown.

Note 2: Only selected elements are included in the Minimum Requirement List. Hence the completed elements do not have to sum up.

Note 3: Preparers are not required to provide the breakdown of the trade and other receivables, trade and other payables and provisions according to different classes of parties.

Note 4: In contrast to note 3, preparers are required to provide the breakdown into different classes for property, plant and equipment, and share capital.

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).

(d) Mapping Principles (for Full Set of Financial Statements in XBRL)

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:

1. Submit the complete set of Annual General Meeting (AGM) financial statements using Disclosure of complete set of financial statements [text block].
2. Map every line item within the AGM financial statements to the relevant concept within the taxonomy when they are equivalent in accounting terms.
3. 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.
4. 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.
5. 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).

(e) Financial Statements Highlights

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 and templates. 

(f) Help Resources

Training and Subsidy

To get training on the revised XBRL filing requirements and the BizFin^x filing system, you can sign up for:

Free training seminars	Subscribe to ACRA News Alert to receive updates on the upcoming training seminars
Training courses	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.

Click here for detailed information on the help resources available.