XBRL, or eXtensible Business Reporting Language, uld assist ernment auditors in monitoring spending under the more than $700 billion financial bailout plan. That’s the message Mark Bolgiano, President and CEO of XBRL US, delivered to Capitol Hill this month. Acrding to Bolgiano, XBRL is “real, ready and relevant in the current financial crisis.”

XBRL is a language for the electronic mmunication of business and financial data which is transforming global business reporting with the promise of greater efficiency and improved auracy. This technology involves mputer “tags” similar to the bar des used to identify groceries in the supermarket. Acrding to the SEC, the tags uniquely identify individual items in a mpany’s financial statement so they can be easily searched, downloaded, reanized, and put to any number of other mparative and analytical uses.

XBRL to Help Track TARP Funds

XBRL US - a local jurisdiction of the global not-for-profit nsortium of approximately 500 mpanies and agencies working to build the XBRL language and promote its adoption – this month announced it reported to the Domestic Policy Submmittee hearing of the Oversight and ernment Reform mittee to assess the Treasury Department’s efforts at preventing waste and misuse of funds by financial institutions under the Troubled Asset Relief Program (TARP).

Testifying at the hearing, Mark Bolgiano, President and CEO of XBRL US, described how the interactive data tags would eventually be able to help regulators track the disbursement and use of TARP funds and enable more effective regulation by the ernment.

“XBRL is real. It is in use today for over 8,000 banking institutions that report to the FDIC and starting this summer, approximately 500 public mpanies will start reporting in XBRL to the SEC, with the balance mplying over the next two years,” said Bolgiano.

“XBRL is ready. The market is equipped for even broader applications. And it’s relevant to the issues in today’s financial crisis and can be part of the solution to establishing better reporting systems and getting the markets back on track,” added Bolgiano. He went on to inform ngress about an XBRL standard for residential mortgage-backed securities (RMBS), which can describe various aspects of securitized assets, including their valuation on issuance, surveillance and bond remittance.

XBRL Looming

The SEC delivered its mandate that rporations start filing financial statements using XBRL technology in February 2009. The 500 largest public mpanies must start XBRL mpliance on June 13th, followed by other large filers in 2010, and all remaining mpanies in 2011. The new rule requires public mpanies to begin filing their financial statements using the interactive data format, allowing investors to download them more easily into spreadsheets and other software. Acrding to the SEC, the technology is “intended not only to make financial information easier for investors to analyze (across mpanies and industries), but also to assist in automating regulatory filings and business information processing.”

Now, as SEC rules bring XBRL usage by public mpanies closer to reality, ntrollers and Chief Financial Officers must act early on how to handle XBRL tagging, acrding to SmartBrief. It’s true. New ncepts like XBRL and enhanced business reporting are making real changes in the way business is being done.

XBRL implementation is a critical issue facing financial, legal, risk, audit and mpliance officers at publicly held mpanies. For example, internal auditors can help implement XBRL and provide objective assurance on the implementation process, but they need to first understand the new interactive reporting format, the mandate requirements, and pros and ns of various implementation approaches.

Looking ahead, rporations must add the infrastructure to meet the filing requirements of the SEC. As a result, executive search firm, A.E. Feldman, reports that acunting jobs are opening up for Audit Managers and senior-level professionals with expertise in XBRL and the preparation and maintenance of financial, acunting and statistical reports.