Taking on the responsibility of bringing eXtensible Business Reporting Language tagging in-house,as nearly half of finance executives recently surveyed by the Financial Executives Research Foundation (FERF)say they plan to do this year,may sound difficult,especially to those who don’t see the benefits of XBRL tagging in the first place.But with the assistance of cloud-based XBRL service providers,it’s not the Herculean effort some CFOs may think.

“XBRL is still somewhat complicated to a lot of companies.It can be scary,”says Emily Huang,cofounder of XBRL tagging software provider Rivet.“But if you’re letting your printer do the tagging,you’re outsourcing your responsibility.”

The issue is control,and “accountants don’t like to give up control,”Huang says,not disinterestedly.

But as with any new and unfamiliar process,it helps to have a helping hand.According to the FERF survey,52%of all large accelerated filers use an XBRL service or tool to aid them,while 39%of all large accelerated filers also take advantage of training offered by providers such as Rivet,WebFilings,and iXBRL.In the most recent quarter,31%of large accelerated filers handled 100%of their XBRL work internally.In the coming year,47%expect to do so.

Prior to the second quarter of 2011,Dublin-based power-management company Eaton was using Bowne and Co.(which was acquired by R.R.Donnelley that year)to outsource its 10-Ks and 10-Qs.As the company moved along in the process of becoming XBRL-compliant,Bill Myers,Eaton’s vice president of technical accounting and reporting,saw the need for increased control and flexibility of the process the printer wasn't providing,and the potential to improve turnaround times.

“Initially,we were tagging only the financial statements,which was easy enough for printers to do,”he explains.“But over a three-year period,depending on what phase you're in,we were going to have to start tagging the footnotes,which is a daunting task.”(According to the Securities and Exchange Commission,filers are required to tag footnotes using four different levels of detail:each tagged as a single block of text;each significant policy within the significant accounting policies footnote tagged as a single block of text;each table within each footnote tagged as a separate block of text;and within each footnote,each amount or number separately tagged:a tag within a tag.)

When Myers attended an American Institute of Certified Public Accounts conference in early 2011,he heard whispers that printers were becoming overwhelmed by all that tagging.He,too,had noticed R.R.Donnelley’s turnaround time slowing.And there were errors.

“There were a couple mistakes that were eye-openers for us,”says Myers.Around the same time,he got a call from a sales representative at WebFilings,a software company providing XBRL tagging guidance and solutions.“We knew that the last-tier filers [smaller companies]were coming on in June —that there would be 5,000registrants coming in and needing tagging for footnotes,”he says.Because of that approaching influx of new registrants,Myers decided to begin using internal resources to complete the process with the help of WebFilings.

(Doug Fitzgerald,R.R.Donnelley’s executive vice president of communications,did not respond to inquiries about possible errors in client reports,but did acknowledge in an e-mail that there “has been a significant increase in demand for XBRL services due to the completion of the SEC phase-in and the complexities associated with detailed tagging,”and noted that the company’s offerings “enable clients to insource,use a blended approach,or outsource the process —which maximizes flexibility.”)

While XBRL tagging does mean more work for finance or accounting departments,Myers believes that after the first year —when there’s a lot of training and guidance —the process will be “about 30%cheaper”than outsourcing.He says he hasn’t had to add any staff since bringing the process in-house.

Myers actually sees a benefit beyond cost to insourcing.“I think our external reporting team is more integrated now because we’re so in the details of doing the document,”he says.

Using the cloud-based software WebFilings provided for a subscription fee,Eaton avoids a large chunk of the back-and-forth its printer required to revise and complete financial ,a revision that used to take at least a day can now be completed in five minutes.Better still,Myers says he no longer has to deal with a “pencils-down”policy,which the FERF survey found to be a major issue for finance executives outsourcing the process.“The printers would say they needed one or two days before the filing,but now I can make a change literally within hours,”he says.

Even as Eaton’s reporting department has learned to view the XBRL tagging process as a rewarding way to be “more in touch with the documents”they create,Myers says he hasn’t seen much of a return on investment from XBRL itself.That sentiment was echoed in the FERF study,which found that the biggest concern raised regarding XBRL compliance was to question the cost-benefit equation of the SEC’s mandate.“I don’t think we’ve had a whole lot of hits from it,and from what I’ve heard,investors aren’t using it either,”he says.“Obviously,we have to comply —and we will to the best of our ability —but as to how meaningful it is,I’m not so sure.”

The FERF survey was conducted last October after R.R.Donnelley mistakenly released Google’s quarterly earnings report before it was scheduled and before it was ready,so the slip-up may have affected CFOs’feelings about outsourcing XBRL.But Huang says the incident should have been a wake-up call.

“I really feel for R.R.Donnelley,”she says.“Think about how many clients they had to juggle.Once in a while,they’re going to make a mistake,and I don’t know how any CFO can be comfortable with that,to tell you the truth.”

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中文新闻：内包XBRL：标记工作有多难？