Public companies preparing to comply with the mandate to tag their financials in XBRL may have their work cut out for them initially, but it gets easier the second time around, according to recent survey of more than 200 public company executives.

An SEC rule that took effect last year already requires the largest 500 U.S. public companies to file their financial statements tagged in XBRL. Another 1,200 large filers must start complying with the mandate for their periodic reports filed after June 15, 2010, and all other domestic and foreign registrants will follow suit next year.

In a joint survey by XBRL U.S. and the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants, the majority of executives polled (57 percent) said the prep took more than 120 hours, when factoring in all of the legwork for their first submission, including getting educated about XBRL and the Securities and Exchange Commission mandate, choosing a vendor or software, etc.

However, respondents reported that prep time for those XBRL submissions decreased dramatically after the first filing. Nearly two-thirds (64 percent) of those that have already filed a second time around said it took less than 40 hours. Most of those polled (45 percent) said it was “significantly easier” to prepare and submit the XBRL documents the second time, and another 27 percent said it was “somewhat easier.”

Most respondents from organizations that have already submitted XBRL-formatted financial statements say their firms have outsourced at least part of the process, according to the survey results. Thirty-nine percent said their company created and submitted XBRL files using internal staff and a software tool; 31 percent outsourced the entire process, including mapping, tagging, instance document creation. and submission, to a third-party service provider, while 16 percent did the mapping internally, but outsourced the tagging, instance document creation. and submission. Another 8 percent said their company created and submitted XBRL files using hired consultants/advisers and a software tool and 6 percent said the company created/submitted XBRL files using internal staff and a third party developed taxonomy and software.

Among those respondents who haven’t yet submitted XBRL-tagged financials, more than half (56 percent) say their company plans to outsource it to a service provider. Roughly a quarter (24 percent) plan to do the XBRL in-house, while the remaining 20 percent weren’t sure.

Those who’ve already done XBRL tagging most commonly cited detailed footnote tagging (21 percent) as their major concern. Other worries included: increasing efficiencies in preparation and submission (14 percent), ongoing cost and difficulty of XBRL creation and submission (12 percent), risk/liability for having the same financials available to the public in two different formats (8 percent); how to better define and control the process (7 percent), and developments regarding auditors’ responsibility for XBRL formatted financial statements and not being able to use a grace period in subsequent filings, each cited by 5 percent of those polled.

Meanwhile, new filers most often cited insufficient resources as their biggest concern (35 percent), followed by a need to get educated (28 percent), the cost/benefit proposition (14 percent), and the availability of help and support services (11 percent).