Editor's Comments
15th April 2011
With so much attention focused on the regulatory aspects of XBRL, for example, SEC filings and iXBRL submissions in the UK, it appears that the world is in danger of losing sight of what motivated the move to digital reporting in the first place. The primary purpose of XBRL was to encourage the ‘democratization’ of financial data, for example, making it easier for investors and other users of financial statements to compare and contrast financial performance of companies around the world. But we have become stuck in a rut. All of the effort to date has been expended in satisfying regulators insatiable appetite for data and investors have been sidelined. On the other hand XBRL adoption would probably not have happened had it not been for regulatory demand. But now that the initial hurdles have been overcome it is time for the pendulum to swing away from compliance and more towards performance management where XBRL has yet to make any impact. It was good to see Oracle this week announcing an XBRL extension for its 11g database. It is moves such as this that will lay the foundations for the future.
