Few CFOs can enjoy the process of filing their panies’financials using eXtensible Business Reporting Language,or XBRL.But many have ncluded it is a job best done in-house,acrding to a recent study by Financial Executives Research Foundation.Surveying 416finance executives from small,midsize,and large panies,FERF found that anizations across the board expect to take greater responsibility for their XBRL filings.

“Usually the trend is to outsource what is not your re petency,whether it’s payroll or AP or whatever,but XBRL seems to buck that trend,”says Bill Sint,senior director of research at FERF and author of the study.

Forty-three percent of large aelerated filers (those that had to ply with XBRL requirements starting in 2009)are not planning to outsource XBRL tagging at all next year,pared with 27%that did not outsource the function in the most recent panies of all sizes said they planned to increase both the size of their internal XBRL teams and the level of internal XBRL petency.

The survey showed that panies in every stage of XBRL pliance are hoping to improve on tagging,which was the most-often-mentioned bottleneck in Securities and Exchange mission filing across all reporting groups in 2012.Among the largest panies,55%cited XBRL tagging as their greatest difficulty when filing,as did 64%of smaller panies.Respondents cited their internal teams’level of XBRL petency,getting cated on the technology,and the final review process as ntributors to the bottleneck.

The Problem with “Pencils Down”

The FERF survey was nducted last October after financial printer RR Donnelley mistakenly released Google’s quarterly earnings report before it was schled and before it was ready,so the slipup may have affected CFOs’feelings about outsourcing XBRL.But Sint suggests that dissatisfaction with outsourced XBRL providers is leading panies to bring the function in-house.In particular,he says,they are unhappy with many providers’“pencils-down”policies,which require them to submit a final version of documents a number of business days prior to a planned filing.

“Many times panies will have last-minute changes they want to make,but if they’ve already sent the filing to the outsourcer,they can’t make that change,or,worst-case scenario,their filing is late,”Sint says.“If you do the tagging in-house,you can make those last-minute changes.”

As with any new and unfamiliar process,it helps to have a helping hand.Acrding to the FERF survey,52%of all large aelerated filers use an XBRL service or tool to aid them,while 39%also take advantage of training offered by cloud-based software providers such as Rivet and WebFilings.

“XBRL is still somewhat plicated to a lot of panies.It can be scary,”says Rivet -founder Emily Huang.“But if you’re letting your printer do the tagging,you’re outsourcing your responsibility.”The issue is ntrol,she says,and “acuntants don’t like to give up ntrol.”

Eye-Openers

One pany that has taken ntrol over the process is Eaton,a Dublin,Ireland-based power-management pany with revenues north of $16billion.Prior to the send quarter of 2011,the pany was outsourcing its 10-K and 10-Q tagging to Bowne,which was acquired by RR Donnelley later that year.As the pany worked toward XBRL pliance,William Myers,Eaton’s vice president of technical acunting and reporting,saw the need for increased ntrol and flexibility over the process.

“Initially,we were tagging only the financial statements,which was easy enough for printers to do,”Myers explains.“But over a three-year period,we were going to have to start tagging the footnotes,which is a daunting task.”(Acrding to the SEC,filers are required to tag footnotes using four different levels of detail.)

When Myers attended an American Institute of Certified Public Acuntants nference in early 2011,he heard talk that printers were being overwhelmed by all the tagging.He had noticed that RR Donnelley’s turnaround time was slowing.And there were errors.

“There were a uple mistakes that were eye-openers for us,”says Myers.Around the same time,he got a call from a WebFilings sales representative.“We knew that the last-tier filers [smaller panies]were ing on in June —that there would be 5,000registrants ing in and needing tagging for footnotes,”he says.Myers felt the time had e to begin using internal resources to plete the process,with the help of WebFilings software.

(Doug Fitzgerald,RR Donnelley’s executive vice president of munications,did not respond to inquiries about possible errors in client reports,but acknowledged in an e-mail that there “has been a significant increase in demand for XBRL services due to the pletion of the SEC phase-in and the plexities associated with detailed tagging.”)

While XBRL tagging does mean more work for finance or acunting departments,Myers believes that after the first year —when there is 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.

Using the software,Eaton avoids a large chunk of the back-and-forth its printer required to revise and plete financial nsequently,a revision that used to take at least a day can now be pleted in five minutes.Better still,Myers says he no longer has to deal with the pencils-down policy.“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.

Still,Myers says he hasn’t seen much of a return on investment from XBRL itself,a sentiment echoed in the FERF study.Among smaller reporting panies,68%reported that the biggest ncern regarding XBRL pliance is the st-benefit question.It was also the biggest worry among 45%of large aelerated filers (the group also ranked potentially receiving a ment letter from the SEC as an equal ncern).

“I don’t think we’ve had a whole lot of hits from [XBRL],and from what I’ve heard,investors aren’t using it either,”Myers says.“Obviously,we have to ply —and we will to the best of our ability —but as to how meaningful it is,I’m not so sure.”

中文新闻：XBRL 标记工作各方谈