The XBRL US National Conference for 2011 was held in Nashville September 26 – 27th at the Gaylord Opryland Resort.  The conference had about 300 attendees, roughly half of which were accounting/finance staff from corporate filers, and the rest representing vendors, consultants and service providers.  Before the conference started, XBRL US held its Committee and General Members meetings.  The conference agenda included general sessions with keynotes and panel discussions on various topics, as well as XBRL Essentials Training sessions for corporate filers.

Some of the highlights from general sessions included:Public Company Viewpoint – Frank Brod – Chief Accounting Officer, Microsoft Regulatory Viewpoint - Mike Starr - Deputy Chief Accountant, US SEC XBRL Panel:  Beyond the SEC - Corporate Use of XBRL to Communicate with Other Regulators, Industry Groups and Other Stakeholders XBRL Panel:  Investor Communications Corporate Competitive Analysis Panel Corporate Actions Panel Key takeaways from the sessions included:

By integrating XBRL with the financial close process, Microsoft reduced the reporting cycle – released earnings sooner, 10Q on day 20, late changes to filings are supported through in-house projects.  Microsoft filings posted in HTML on Investor Relations site, with XBRL data source.  

The US SEC says there will be 6500 active filers by the end of 2011, 8300 when all are phased in.  Foreign filers are waiting on the IFRS taxonomy to be approved – SEC anticipates approval of IFRS taxonomy in first half 2012.  Concerns:  detailed tagging, concurrent filings, capacity.  Benefits:  easier analysis, identify outliers, easier to consume disclosures, more software licenses.  Trends:  costs will drop, in-house tagging will increase, more authoring and consumption tools, industry group standards, clearer disclosures.  Expectation that industry extensions and disclosure formats will standardize over time.

XBRL has made it easier for regulators like the FDIC to consume and analyze bank filings.  Easier for the banks to file since XBRL handles many calculations.

Corporate filers expect to see more benefits when XBRL can be used to file with multiple agencies/regulators.  In other countries, Standardized Business Reporting (SBR) efforts are yielding results with multiple agencies either mandating XBRL or accepting on a voluntary basis – i.e. Australia, Belgium etc.

Aggregators are using XBRL data – massaging to provide consistency across companies, analysts and investors starting to leverage XBRL data directly and from aggregators.  Some concerns about data consistency with extensions.  Tagging of earnings press releases would be helpful to investors and analysts.  Industry taxonomies will help improve comparability.

XBRL Essentials Training classes included:

Essentials Basics:  Seleting the Right Tag

Essentials Basics:  Checking Your Work

Essentials Basics:  Managing the Process

Essentials Basics:  XBRL Controls Process

Essentials Advanced:  Getting into the Details – With Detailed Footnote Tagging

Essentials Advanced:  Outsource vs. In-House XBRL Creation

Essentials Advanced:  Crossing the Finish Line – Process, Timing and Quality Control

Essentials Advanced:  What Comes Next:  Transitioning to a New Taxonomy Release

This conference has grown substantially over the past few years and now has a critical mass of corporate filers who are attending to get information on XBRL and attend the XBRL Essentials training.  Here’s a link to videos of the keynotes, and copies of all of the presentation and training materials:

  http://xbrl.us/events/Pages/natconf2011/schedule.aspx