While the volume of publicly available XBRL financial data has exploded with the SEC mandate,the utility of that data has lagged far behind.Most issuers today would characterize XBRL as an additional regulatory burden from which they derive no benefit.The XBRL promise of faster and more aurate data for better parability has not been realized.The high use of custom extensions makes paring all but the simplest financial statements very difficult.If we aept that XBRL will ntinue to be a reporting requirement,particularly in light of the calls for more market (and ernment)data transparency,then it is incumbent upon issuers to focus on the quality of their XBRL data to increase its utility.Higher quality data will increase investor usage of XBRL and will provide issuers a new avenue for shareholder engagement.

Quality data begins with XBRL tag selection and minimizing the use of custom extensions.In addition to facilitating parability for the investor munity,the use of standard tags can benefit a pany through more effective petitive benchmarking.Creating business rules that are directly tied to an XBRL data set can plement best practices around enterprise risk management.As more sophisticated tools for the nsumption of XBRL data bee available,issuers will benefit from more insight about the specific areas of their disclosure on which investors are focusing.For an anization to focus on XBRL quality,it needs to look at the tools and teams available to help it realize the benefits of data nsumption and analysis.

From a software perspective,anizations should select a tool that helps streamline ntent creation,review and distribution of XBRL disclosure to improve efficiency,ernance and the overall quality of all financial reports.Any tool must be supported by a team with XBRL expertise.If the expertise does not exist in house,then an anization must look for a partner that is willing to do as much or as little of the process as needed.The goal is to create an integrated approach to support the anization’s financial disclosure process.With a llaborative process where various members of the executive team have input –including those financial executives who will use the data for downstream analysis –additional significance is added to how the data is tagged.

When disclosure authors mit to this level of care with the data,anizations will begin using it more frequently and investors will begin to rely upon it,as my lleague Dave Frankel will discuss in our uping post about the future of XBRL data nsumption.

原文地址：http://hitachidatainteractive./2013/05/22/the-chicken-and-egg-of-xbrl-data/

中文新闻：鸡生蛋 蛋生鸡：XBRL数据创建与应用