XBRL Best Practices Board Sets its Sights on Filing Rules
XII’s Best Practices Board is examining filing rules on a global basis with the goal of identifying existing filing rules from implementations; reviewing rules with an eye towards classifying rules into different categories, and deciding which of those categories should be the scope of an XBRL International standardisation effort.
Filing Rules inform preparers of the requirements associated with particular filing systems and taxonomies, and can vary from strong requirements (“must” rules) to best practices advice (“should” rules). The problem with local filing rules and filing “manuals” is that they can impair interoperability, limiting the choice of compliant software for specific environments. While security, access controls and non-repudiation are typically unique to specific reporting environments, much can be done to expand the availability and choice of software by simplifying other aspects of filing rules as applied to structured reporting.
This work is being led by the Implementation Guidance Task Force and will ultimately progress towards a proposed set of best practice guidelines around which categories of rules should be included in filing rules documents, best practices for drafting and defining rules and the publication of test cases or conformance suites that will enhance interoperability.
Anyone in the consortium who has an interest is invited to take part. For more information or to participate contact igtf-feedback@xbrl.org
