'Street Cred' for XBRL

[Miles P. Jennings, Jr.]

The fourth quarter recorded 35 new voluntary XBRL filers with the SEC, compared to just seven such filers in the third quarter. And December's sixteen new voluntary filers is more than twice what was filed in the whole 3rd quarter. And, privately, the number of corporate converters is growing apace.

With mandatory filing now on its way soon, 2009 promises to be a banner year for corporate conversions to XBRL for external filing with the SEC. The effect that the mandate will have on how companies use XBRL internally in auditing and operating control and analysis is still not clear.

One trend is clear: New uses of XBRL will be developed via new tools and web applications. The statement by the IBM Data Governance Council recently reinforces this trend and is but one example.

For long-time practitioners and developers of XBRL, the current regulatory developments are just a logical step for greater transparency and usefulness of public reporting. But, there is a larger impact than meets the eye: World accounting practice does not independently change public reporting until their regulatory authorities officially accept and mandate such reporting standards and filing systems. Until regulators act, XBRL is just not given legit status by analysts and accountants.

Acceptance of XBRL as the official SEC-mandated standard---in a sense XBRL got 'Street Cred' in 2008---sets many and important things in motion---school curricula, CPA practices, corporate accounting, business intelligence, financial data use, financial relations, public use---to name a few.

Hopefully, the New Year will have a lot of new XBRL applications to discuss on this network, new products offered, and services provided. I hope members feel free to use the network as a way to promote their own XBRL products. This Forum section would be a good place to introduce XBRL products and services; and you can upload webinars, conferences, etc. on the network's calendar.