XBRL News

The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission unveiled a Web site on Friday that lets investors launch charts and graphs to probe the financial data of a select group of companies that have signed on to the agency's interactive data push. The SEC's new Financial Explorer site, reached via www.sec.gov/xbrl, is a tool that lets users manipulate raw data derived from XBRL, or extensible business reporting language. The agency is pushing companies to start filing their financial data in XBRL, which means that electronic tags much like bar codes would be attached to each piece of financial data. More than 70 companies have signed on to the SEC's XBRL pilot program, and the agency is expected to propose as soon as April that companies be required to file financial results in XBRL. The Financial Explorer site uses interactive charts and diagrams, including "atomic models", to represent data such as current assets, long-term investments and goodwill. Users can also compare earnings, earnings, expenses, cash flows, assets, and liabilities for companies in the same industry.

"XBRL is fast becoming the universal language for the exchange of business information and it is the future of financial reporting," said SEC Chairman Christopher Cox in a statement. "With Financial Explorer or another XBRL viewer, investors will be able to quickly make sense of financial statements."

The site is currently limited to the 74 companies that are involved in the agency's pilot program, which include General Electric Co, Microsoft Corp. and United Technologies Corp. Members of an SEC advisory committee, created to improve financial reporting, have voiced concerns about the financial cost for companies to implement XBRL and the liability that could be attached to faulty implementation. The committee issued an interim report earlier this week that recommended the SEC go forth with a plan to require companies to file in XBRL, but urged a phased-in approach. The agency has already launched other online viewers that let investors manipulate data instead of having to copy and paste into a spreadsheet.

The Executive Compensation viewer lets users compare pay data from 500 of the largest U.S. companies and the Interactive Financial Report viewer allows for the comparison of key disclosures from the companies in the XBRL pilot program. The Financial Explorer site is open source, meaning technology and financial experts can update and improve the viewer tool. The SEC said it sees the potential for investors and analysts to develop hundreds of Web-based applications that would further push along the development of XBRL.

Interactive XBRL Viewer and New Educational Seminars Underscore Bowne's Commitment to Helping Clients Understand Changes in the Regulatory Landscape

Bowne & Co., Inc. (NYSE: BNE), a leader in shareholder and marketing communications services, today announced the launch of its Interactive XBRL Viewer for regulatory submissions. The first application of its kind to leverage the source code made available by the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), the Viewer makes it possible for any company or fund to review XBRL documents prior to submission.

The web-based Viewer, which is free to use and available at www.bowne.com/xbrl, allows any user to upload documents for review without needing to first submit them to the SEC EDGAR system. It's also the first application to provide renderings of all risk return mutual fund information that has been submitted to the SEC in XBRL format. The Viewer supports viewing XBRL data based on both the original and new US GAAP XBRL taxonomies, the International Financial Reporting Standards taxonomy, and the ICI risk return mutual fund prospectus taxonomy.

"The data in XBRL documents can be viewed by investors in a variety of ways," said Walter Hamscher, past Chairman of the XBRL International Steering Committee and current technology consultant on the SEC US GAAP Taxonomy Project. "Companies considering joining the Voluntary Program will benefit from the Viewer because it allows them to verify the tags they've selected for their data prior to submitting their document to the SEC EDGAR system itself."

In conjunction with the availability of the Viewer, Bowne is launching a series of seminars on XBRL and e-Proxy across the United States and Canada led by Rob Blake, Bowne's Senior Director of Interactive Services and past Project Director for the SEC US GAAP Taxonomy project, and Jonathan Katz, former Secretary of the SEC. The XBRL portion of the sessions will help clients understand XBRL and prepare for using the new US GAAP taxonomies by providing personalized, hands-on exposure to XBRL in general, the new taxonomies and the Interactive XBRL Viewer. Mr. Katz will lead a discussion on Notice and Access and the e-Proxy initiative.  "We're already seeing a significant increase in the number of clients wanting to know more about XBRL and e-Proxy," said Rob Blake. "These seminars ensure our clients are not overwhelmed by these new SEC initiatives and instead learn how to best prepare for their implementation and harness their power."

Initial seminar dates and locations are as follows:

Atlanta - February 5; Miami - February 6; Dallas - February 15; Houston - February 20; Los Angeles and Orange County - February 27/28; Seattle - February 29; Phoenix/Scottsdale - March 20 (NAREIT Conference); Bermuda - April 16.  To learn more about these seminars, confirm your attendance or check for future seminars, visit: http://www.bowne.com/about/events.asp. Additional seminars in Cleveland, Chicago, Detroit, Toronto, Montreal, Calgary and Vancouver will be scheduled soon.

These educational seminars, as well as the introduction of the Interactive XBRL Viewer, underscore Bowne's commitment to providing thought leadership and guidance to clients and prospective clients. Bowne also hosts a thought leadership portal, Bowne SecuritiesConnect® (http://www.bowne.com/securitiesconnect), which includes a library of useful information on issues at the forefront of the shareholder and marketing communications industry, including articles on XBRL and e-Proxy.

The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission unveiled a website Friday that lets investors launch charts and graphs to probe the financial data of a select group of companies that have signed on to the agency's interactive data push. The SEC's new Financial Explorer site, at http://www.sec.-gov/xbrl, is a tool that lets users manipulate raw data derived from XBRL, or extensible business reporting language. The agency is pushing companies to start filing their financial data in XBRL, which means that electronic tags much like bar codes would be attached to each piece of financial data. More than 70 companies have signed on to the pilot program.

Securities and Exchange Commission Chairman Christopher Cox today announced the launch of the "Financial Explorer" on the SEC Web site to help investors quickly and easily analyze the financial results of public companies. Financial Explorer paints the picture of corporate financial performance with diagrams and charts, using financial information provided to the SEC as "interactive data" in eXtensible Business Reporting Language (XBRL). At the click of a mouse, Financial Explorer lets investors automatically generate financial ratios, graphs, and charts depicting important information from financial statements. Information including earnings, expenses, cash flows, assets, and liabilities can be analyzed and compared across competing public companies. The software takes the work out of manipulating the data by entirely eliminating tasks such as copying and pasting rows of revenues and expenses into a spreadsheet. That frees investors to focus on their investments' financial results through visual representations that make the numbers easier to understand. Investors can use Financial Explorer by visiting www.sec.gov/xbrl. "XBRL is fast becoming the universal language for the exchange of business information and it is the future of financial reporting," said Chairman Cox. "With Financial Explorer or another XBRL viewer, investors will be able to quickly make sense of financial statements. In the near future, potentially millions of people will be able to analyze and compare financial statements and make better-informed investment decisions. That's a big benefit to ordinary investors." David Blaszkowsky, Director of the SEC's Office of Interactive Disclosure, encouraged investors to try out the new software. "Financial Explorer will help investors analyze investment choices much quicker. I encourage both companies and investors to visit the SEC Web site, try the software, and get a first-hand glimpse of the future of financial analysis, especially for the retail investor." Financial Explorer is open source, meaning that its source code is free to the public, and technology and financial experts can update and enhance the software. As interactive data becomes more commonplace, investors, analysts, and others working in the financial industry may develop hundreds of Web-based applications that help investors garner insights about financial results through creative ways of analyzing and presenting the information. In addition to Financial Explorer, the SEC currently offers investors two other online viewers - the Executive Compensation viewer and the Interactive Financial Report viewer, also available at www.sec.gov/xbrl. The Executive Compensation viewer enables investors to instantly compare what 500 of the largest U.S. companies are paying their top executives. The Interactive Financial Report viewer also helps investors gather, analyze, and compare key financial disclosures filed voluntarily by public companies using XBRL. To date, there have been 307 such filings from 74 companies. Under the SEC's interactive data filing program, companies may continue to file XBRL data voluntarily, pending anticipated Commission rulemaking. Unlike most free Internet tools that use adjusted or aggregated data and include disclaimers warning investors not to rely on the information for investment decisions, XBRL data can give investors nearly real-time access to the complete and actual data companies report under U.S. Generally Accepted Accounting Principles. The SEC's interactive data initiative is designed to make financial information more accessible, more understandable, and more useful to investors. It enables public companies and mutual funds to submit information in a standardized, tagged format to facilitate analysis and comparisons. For more information, contact XBRLprogram@sec.gov.

By Alan Rappeport

The program provides a graphical assessment of the performance of companies that filed in the XBRL format. On Friday the Securities and Exchange Commission unveiled a tool on its Website designed to help investors quickly and easily analyze the financial results of public companies that reported information using eXtensible business reporting language, or XBRL. Dubbed "Financial Explorer," it takes information from financial statements and generates ratios, graphs, and charts to give a graphical picture of a company's performance. It is the latest addition to the collection of software the SEC has been rolling out with an eye to possibly making the use of XBRL mandatory, which could happen by the end of 2008. "With Financial Explorer or another XBRL viewer, investors will be able to quickly make sense of financial statements," says SEC chairman Christopher Cox. "In the near future, potentially millions of people will be able to analyze and compare financial statements and make better-informed investment decisions." During the past year, the SEC unveiled an executive-compensation viewer and an interactive financial-report viewer. The former makes it possible to compare salaries of top executives in America's 500 biggest corporations; the latter allows investors to compare financial disclosures by companies participating in the SEC's voluntary XBRL pilot program. Thus far 74 firms have made 307 filings, according to the SEC. Financial Explorer, which is now available for testing on the SEC Website , comes with the slogan "Discover the Power of Interactive Data." The commission's most important XBRL accomplishment to date came last year when it completed the development of data tags — strings of computer code assigned to every line item in a financial statement prepared using XBRL — for the entire system of U.S. generally accepted accounting principles. Since then, it's been contemplating whether XBRL should be mandated. In its announcement Friday, the SEC reminded companies that they can continue to file XBRL data voluntarily "pending anticipated Commission rulemaking." New rules could include a decision to require companies to file their financial reports in XBRL format, which has been widely anticipated and would likely generate mixed reactions. Although most executives and investors agree that financial reports would become more user-friendly, detractors argue that XBRL may not be the solution. Some practitioners have derided it as a "consulting product" in search of a market, while others have expressed concerns about the additional costs and fees that will come with adopting and auditing XBRL.