With the recent news that the European Securities and Markets Authority (ESMA) has published a feedback statement setting out the use of Inline XBRL as the digital format which public companies in the European Union (EU) must use to report their company information to investors worldwide from January 1, 2020
Sixty percent of financial statement data is already being consumed electronically , and this figure will continue to grow, according to International Accounting Standards Board Chairman, Hans Hoogervorst. BUT the SPECIFIC data elements reported and consumed by the capital markets is not ASSURED by the auditor or the management accountant reporting this information to the CFO – the FULL paper report is ASSURED but not the specific DATA ELEMENT reported in the financial statement. The accounting profession has not made the jump from paper to electronic reporting by assuring specific data elements in financial reports for example submitted to the regulator even though more than 60% of financial statement data is consumed electronically… Right now these assurance services are provided in the full audit for the public company BUT not the specific data elements submitted to the US SEC
Great article from the European Securities Market Authority on what EU public companies must do using the new Inline XBRL Global Data Standard for Better Transparency & Accountability by putting financial and non-financial financial statement info in a machine-readable format
While I was able to perform to the level required by the manager in the finance department to streamline their model to evaluate acquisitions by applying “modular design” and a few other principles, I found the work fascinating in that the client taught me how they decide on acquisitions, as far as the financial metrics that include discounted cash flow, net present value, internal rate of return and numerous metrics which draw on limited financial history to “backfill” missing financial statement elements and estimate future financial elements
Likewise, companies have increased their commitments to ESG: Ceres research shows that among that 600 largest public companies, “nearly two-thirds have commitments to reduce greenhouse gas (gHg) emissions, half are actively managing water resources and nearly half are now actively protecting the human rights of their employees by disclosing human capital data in its financial statement reports as well
Sixty percent of financial statement data is already being consumed electronically, and this figure will continue to grow, according to International Accounting Standards Board Chairman, Hans Hoogervorst