The st of formatting financial statements in Extensible Business Reporting Language,or XBRL,for small reporting mpanies has plunged 45percent since 2014,acrding to a new study by the American Institute of CPAs and XBRL US,making the requirement for using the data-tagged format more affordable.

The Securities and Exchange mission began mandating the use of XBRL by the largest public mpanies in 2009,phasing in the requirements for smaller public mpanies over the next two years.XBRL technology was supposed to make it easier for investors and analysts to mpare financial statements across mpanies and industries,but problems with data quality and nsistency limited its usefulness,at least st also posed a problem,especially for smaller mpanies,which often end up outsourcing the job.

To mpare the expenses of XBRL reporting for small mpanies trying to mply with the SEC’s mandate,and to gauge pricing trends,XBRL US and the AICPA surveyed XBRL filing agents providing XBRL tagging and filing services to small public mpanies.They originally examined the pricing trends in 2014and followed up with a new study whose results were published Wednesday.The latest study relied on pricing data from 1,032small reporting mpanies using 13different filing agents or service providers for 2017services.XBRL is an anization that supports the implementation of XBRL business reporting services.

The study found that 68.6percent of the mpanies paid $5,500or less per year (mpared to 29.9percent of mpanies in the 2014survey)for fully outsourced creation and filing solutions for their XBRL filings.Another 11.8percent of the mpanies surveyed paid annual sts between $5,500to as much as $8,000for their full-service outsourced solutions.Only 13.1percent of mpanies paid more than $10,000in yearly sts,mpared to 31percent in the 2014survey.The highest annual amount paid last year was $51,500,paid by one mpany;while the next highest st was $38,800.The median st of filing was $2,500,down 69percent from the 2014median of $8,000per year.

“The survey indicates that the investment to standardize rporate disclosure data is not overly demanding on small businesses,”said Ami Beers,director of assurance and advisory services,rporate reporting,at the AICPA,in a statement.“It is clear the process has beme more efficient over the years allowing vendors to price more mpetitively.This shows that the benefits of using XBRL exceed the sts because mpanies can reach more investors and provide analysts with easy aess to more detailed financial disclosure information.”

The SEC is now allowing mpanies to use inline XBRL,a technology that promises to make XBRL easier to use and thereby less expensive.

Then-SEC missioner Michael Piwowar referred to the study in a statement during a June 28hearing in which the SEC voted to adopt inline XBRL.“This is an enuraging trend,and I expect mpliance sts to decline further as a result of today’s elimination of the requirement that operating mpanies and funds post Interactive Data Files to their public webs,”he said.

AICPA building in Durham,N.C.

中文新闻：AICPA sees 45% drop in XBRL sts for small mpanies