Monday, December 30, 2013

More Savings from SBR in Australia

Recently, the Australian Assistant Treasurer announced almost $50 million in savings each year for the superannuation industry as part of the Abbott Government's initiatives to reduce red tape and compliance by $1 billion per year, including the use of the Standard Business Reporting's (SBR).

The savings arise from standardizing business reporting around data rather than forms thereby reducing the number of data points that need to be collected.

Similar savings can be achieved in Canada if SBR is adopted here.

Wednesday, December 18, 2013

House of Commons Standing Committee on Finance Recommends XBRL

Encouraging news among the recommendations issued by the House of Commons Standing Committee on Finance following its pre-budget hearings.

One recommendation calls for the federal government to explore the possibility of standardizing business reporting (SBR) and specifically XBRL, to reduce compliance costs for taxpayers and enhance federal data collection. SBR was as one of three main issues profiled by CPA Canada earlier this year during a presentation to the finance committee and in a co-branded pre-budget submission with the Certified General Accountants Association of Canada (www.cpacanada.ca/2013Pre-Budget).


Hopefully, the federal government listens and moves to adopt XBRL in its next federal budget expected to be delivered this coming spring.

Monday, December 16, 2013

How Ford Uses Big Data to Guide its Business

Ford Motor Company has accomplished a turn-around over the past several years. One of the reasons for this is the creative use the company has made of big data.

"Ford has derived some of the greatest returns from analytics investments focused on three areas: ascertaining what customers want, managing vehicle complexity and delivering to individual dealerships the right cars with precisely the right features that customers in that particular geographic area want to buy."

A major source of this data comes from the cars themselves. For example, the Ford Fusion hybrid has sensors that send back to the company data on user experience that can then be analyzed to make that experience better. This article explains.

Friday, December 13, 2013

The Role of XBRL in Corporate Reporting is Becoming More Crucial

Recent developments in the US, particularly the interaction that has been going on between the SEC and the House of Representatives Committee on Oversight and Government Reform, clearly show that there is going to be some significant action regarding XBRL Data quality and enforcement of that quality. So far, there has been little or no enforcement by the SEC, because of the legislative "holiday" on filings and the act that XBRL has been going through a rapid adoption and development phase. The SEC hasn't released a response to the House Committee's actions, but is considering it.

On another front, President Obama recently signed the Data Act which calls for the use of interactive data in government reporting and in so doing, the President urged that interactive data be adopted in all government departments. Interactive data includes XBRL, and at present, XBRL is the most commonly used form of Interactive Data.

For an excellent write-up on the developments in the US, check out this article.