XBRL Compliance Goes Worldwide: Get a Head Start with Microsoft Dynamics GP Analytical Accounting and Microsoft FRx

If you think XBRL (Extensible Business Reporting Language) is just another one of those Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) compliance requirements that will keep consultants and auditors busy for the next three years, think again.

XBRL is becoming the de facto world standard for presentation of corporate financials to government entities in the global economy. The Institute of Chartered Accountants of India is rolling out the first part of its XBRL initiative this coming September, the Tokyo Stock Exchange in Japan and Companies House in England -- a British government registry of companies -- are requiring or testing XBRL filings as I write this article, and eight other countries are working on similar proposals.

In the United States, about 80 companies are already filing in XBRL - Microsoft being one of them - following a pilot program implemented by the SEC, with the top 500 public companies expected to be on board by the end of FY 2008. You may still be thinking "I am not in the top 500 public companies, so what does this have to do with my organization?" The SEC expects all other public companies to follow suit in the next 2 years, which leaves CIOs and CFOs some time (as in little time) to familiarize with XBRL.

XBRL goes beyond a simple, elegant, SEC compliance filing format to become a powerful tool to reduce and, in many cases eliminate, a company's manual processes needed for operations, management--and, yes, financial reporting.

The typical financial report goes through numerous processes today: first, trial balances get exported to other tools, such as Microsoft Excel, where they are formatted and molded into financial reports. Hopefully, you are making use of ...