And there's outsourcing, an option that Xerox, Automatic Data Processing, and PepsiCo, among others, have taken. "It was pretty much a nonevent," says Chuck Callan, ADP's senior vice president of regulatory affairs, referring to the company's recent 8-K XBRL filing. With outsourcing, the entire process from decision to filing took about 20 to 25 hours of work time, he says, and future filings are expected to take just 5 to 8 hours. Prices currently range from $6,000 for an earnings release to $19,000 for an entire 10-K or 10-Q.
Xerox got an even better deal: free. It worked with printing giant RR Donnelley & Sons, which is investigating offering XBRL services as an adjunct to its traditional printing of annual reports and related financial forms. "We're trying to work back and forth with Donnelley to make sure what comes back looks like what went in," says Xerox chief accounting officer Gary Kabureck — a common theme in these early days as client and outsourcers ascend the learning curve together. "Our objective right now is to make sure cost isn't an issue for [clients]," says Sherad Cravens, director of business strategy and research at Donnelley. The company has teamed up with Edgar Online to provide the coding service to its clients. Other outsourcers include Rivet and CoreFiling.
In fact, because XBRL offers a way to integrate disparate forms of financial data simply by tagging them with standardized code, companies may find that any number of software companies and related-service providers are only too happy to offer the capability at little or no charge. As the only company, so far, to have filed a 10-K in XBRL, Microsoft may be testing the implications of the technology for its industry-standard Excel spreadsheet software. Payroll processor ADP hopes XBRL features will entice more of the companies it serves to select electronic proxy statements over paper. "Because we think XBRL can offer something to our customers, we want to get our feet wet with it," says ADP's Callan. Xerox hinted that its interest in XBRL may net it more than SEC applause. "Anything that can help documents work better, smarter, and faster is central to our research-and-development strategy," says Kabureck.
XBRL may ultimately satisfy some important company data-integration issues that have little to do with SEC filings. In theory, it could eliminate the need for wrapping every business unit into an ERP system, allowing different units more autonomy in the software they choose as long as the numbers produced by the software are tagged in XBRL so as to move easily from one system to another. PwC's Willis points to Wacoal, a Japanese company that layered XBRL on top of a number of ERP systems instead of converting to a common system. "I think it will work as well in the United States, maybe even better, because so many companies have multiple ERP systems as the result of acquisitions," Willis says.
Using XBRL internally could also make it easier to publish external financials to any other agency lender that required them. "If agencies other than the SEC embrace it, I could tag data right in the database, and then feed it to the SEC, the IRS, and the Bureau of Economic [and Business] Affairs as they need it," says UTC's Stantial. "You take out a ton of manual effort, and the possibility of mistakes."
Which brings us back to where we began: possibilities and promises, the suggestion of some momentum, but still plenty of uncertainty. If XBRL is to prove as revolutionary as its supporters claim it can be, it seems that something, or someone, will have to rally the masses far more effectively. Whether the proper motivation comes in the form of a powerful idea or from the looming shadow of the guillotine remains to be seen.
Alix Nyberg Stuart is senior writer at CFO.
XBRL: A World of Options
From mainstream software companies to newer niche players, XBRL products and services are beginning to proliferate.
Cartesis
Offers an XBRL module that pulls tagged data into the company's Cartesis 10 products for benchmarking and M&A analysis; offers an XBRL Publication module that allows companies to self-tag data and generate XBRL instance documents.
CoreFiling
Offers XBRL consulting; tags companies' reported data for SEC filings and press releases (in conjunction with BusinessWire).
Edgar Online
Tag companies' reported data and validate accuracy of XBRL self-tags for SEC filing. Also offers I-Metrix, a financial-data feed in XBRL format, for $7,000 per seat.
Fujitsu
The Interstage XWand product allows companies to create custom tags, as well as tag basic documents; can also tag internal data and unify data across ERP systems. Starts at $2,000 per seat.
Hyperion Solutions
The System 9 Financial-Reporting Module includes an XBRL component that allows users to consolidate, analyze, and report financial results in XBRL formats.
Microsoft
Excel 2003 and 2007 both support custom-defined XML schemas such as XBRL, allowing users to construct, publish, and analyze XBRL data. FRx also allows users to convert internal numeric data into XBRL.
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