A survey conducted by Thomson Reuters with the Institute of Chartered Accountants in England and Wales (ICAEW) has found that over 67% of respondents said that the transition to iXBRL accounts from paper had been `difficult` or worse. Half said that they were spending an average of 7 hours and 12 minutes more on each set of accounts during year one of mandatory iXBRL filing.
Thomson Reuters says that problems have for the most part related to the iXBRL accounts part of the new process with an extra burden of time and effort on staff who have had to ensure tagging is correct and deal with validation and filing issues.
Graham Tilbury, iXBRL specialist for the Tax 7 Accounting business of Thomson Reuters added that businesses filing corporate tax returns have, thus far, been reluctant to commit to a long term solution for iXBRL. “Many have been reluctant to make a ‘binding’ decision to follow one solution, provider or approach for the first year of the new regime. They wanted to let the market settle and then take a more informed decision on entering the 2012 season,” he says.
“iXBRL filing undoubtedly placed an additional burden on the tax and accounting process in terms of time and effort during the first year of the regime,” he noted. “It’s now time to look for ways of simplifying the operation as preparations for the move to International Financial Reporting Standards need to commence within eighteen months. - Now is the time to build a firm base for iXBRL compliance for the next decade,” he added.
