Friday, May 14, 2010

SBR Event - XBRL and Red Tape Reduction Initiatives

TORONTO, May 14 /CNW/ - XBRL Canada is holding a webinar on June 7, 2010 at 4:00PM Eastern on the topic of using XBRL to reduce red tape and cut the cost of government compliance.
In March 2010, Minister of Finance James Flaherty, announced the formation of a Red Tape Reduction Commission to look into ways to reduce the costs of "red tape" activities.
Similar initiatives in several other countries have led to large scale implementations of XBRL for the filing of information with Governments. These initiatives, referred to as Standardized Business Reporting (SBR), involve the use of XBRL for all, or a significant portion, of government filings thus providing a single reporting standard, enabling multiple uses of the same tagged data and promoting consistency among the different filing systems. This initiative has led to significant cost savings and various other benefits which will be discussed in more detail at the webinar on June 7, 2010.
This is an excellent venue for concerned Members of Parliament and their staff, other members of government and business people to learn more about how XBRL can reduce the reporting burden currently placed on businesses in Canada.
Australia is a leading example of a country that is implementing an SBR program and Paul Madden, Director of the SBR program in Australia, will speak at this webinar. Canada can learn from the Australian XBRL experience with SBR implementation, as well as the impressive benefits they plan to gain from the initiative. George Farkas, Canadian XBRL consultant and a member of XBRL Canada, will speak on the parallels between Australia and Canada, and explain why SBR will work well in Canada.
Registration for the webinar is free and available via the XBRL Canada website at www.xbrl.ca.
XBRL Canada is supported and administered by the Canadian Institute of Chartered Accountants.
For further information: XBRL Canada, Gerald Trites, Project Director, (416) 602-3931, Email: gtrites@xbrl.ca
(Further note  - The registration page will be live later today.)

Monday, May 03, 2010

Global XBRL Adoption Update

A global update on XBRL adoption was released a while ago by XBRL International. The survey shows a spread of SBR as a motivation for adoption of XBRL, notably in Australia, but also other countries. SBR (Standard Business Reporting) is an approach to standardization of government filings and reports using XBRL as the core technology. SBR has been a key strategy in several countries to reduce the burden to business of compliance with governmental filing requirements. Hopefully, the Canadian Government will consider SBR in their new Red Tape Commission initiative.

The global survey also shows a continued growth of XBRL in the regulatory area, particularly in securities regulation. A presentation on the survey with lots of details built in can be found at this site.