This week, CoreFiling’s Ian Hicks joined over 20 other industry representatives in London for the Digital Future: Data round table, hosted by the FRC’s Financial Reporting Lab. Discussions focused on how XBRL can help facilitate Digital Future Reporting: a 12-step model proposed by the FRC that uses technology to combat the current “under-performance” of financial data – read more about Digital Future Reporting here.

The event was a great success, attracting attendees from key fintech organisations (including Vizor, IFRS, Workiva, the FRC, and the Bank of England). CoreFiling was on hand to provide important insights about XBRL and its capabilities – and as chair of the XBRL Best Practices Board, Ian also outlined how to follow best practice when implementing it.

 XBRL and the Digital Future model

As an open source technology, XBRL is a good fit for Digital Future, because it isn’t constrained to a single supplier. The standard is also well established, with many examples of large-scale implementation across the world (including tax ecosystems in the UK, Middle East, and now the USA); XBRL provides a proven framework for creating simple, cost-effective solutions, without needing to “reinvent the wheel” or develop brand-new technologies.

As IFRS’s Rita Ogun-Clijmans noted during the discussion, “XBRL should focus on where it fits best into the Digital Future Reporting model” – CoreFiling agrees, as the strength of XBRL lies in its inherent auditability, data provenance, and versatility; XBRL can be linked with other reporting media to assist compatibility.

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