Advances in Technology for Corporate Reporting - Breakfast Session and Seminar.

Chartered Professional Accountants of Canada and XBRL Canada will be holding a special event on Wednesday, October 25^th from 8:00 am – 9:30 am - a breakfast information session to discuss the evolution of technologies such as XBRL, blockchain and artificial intelligence, and the current and potential implications on corporate reporting in Canada and internationally. This event is being hosted at CPA Canada’s offices at 277 Wellington St. West.

Immediately following this session, we will also host a seminar from 10:00 am – 12 noon EDT focusing on the specifics of the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission’s (SEC) XBRL requirements and how they affect Canadian foreign private issuers.

During the breakfast information session on corporate reporting in the digital age, participants will learn:

·      How new technologies like Blockchain, Artificial Intelligence and Big Data are impacting business and financial reporting

·      How securities regulators are advancing the use of XBRL internationally

·      How structured data such as XBRL is used for reporting and for business and investment analysis

During the seminar focusing on XBRL, participants will learn:

·      How the SEC requirements on XBRL will affect Canadian foreign private issuers

·      How Canadian foreign private issuers can prepare for meeting these requirements

·      Other important XBRL developments

For additional information about these events, including the agenda and speakers, please refer to each of the event registration websites:

1.     Breakfast Session on Corporate Reporting in the Digital Age –October 25, 2017 from 8:00 am – 9:30 am EDT -

https://www.eventbrite.ca/e/breakfast-session-on-corporate-reporting-in-the-digital-age-tickets-37924655666

2.     Seminar focusing on XBRL - October 25, 2017 from 10:00 am – 12 noon EDT -

https://www.eventbrite.ca/e/xbrl-coming-to-canada-now-what-tickets-37925951542

Please register to confirm your attendance by Friday, October 6.

Any questions about this event can be directed to Mike Massoud atmmassoud@cpacanada.ca or Gerald Trites at gtrites@xbrl.ca.

XBRL Canada Workshop – Filing in XBRL as a Foreign Private Issuer with the SEC

Date and Time - September 27, 2017, 8:30 AM – 1:00 PM

Location – Offices of CPA Canada 9th floor, 277 Wellington St, Toronto, Ontario

Presenter - Eric E. Cohen, CPA, an internationally known XBRL specialist for many years and one of the founders of the XBRL movement.

The Fee  - $50

To Register - click here for the Registration page on the XBRL Canada Website.

Background - In 2009, the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) published a rule (Rule 33-9002) requiring all US domestic and foreign private issuers who submit financial reports using US GAAP or IFRS to the SEC. to provide financial statement information in XBRL (Extensible Business Reporting Language), a format intended to improve the usefulness of the reports to investors. While US GAAP filers have been providing XBRL versions of their reports for many years now, IFRS filers were unable to comply because of the lack of a supported IFRS taxonomy. This prevented most Canadian Companies from filing. In March, the SEC announced support of the IFRS taxonomy, a move that will affect both IFRS filers and US GAAP filers. Now, Canadian cross-listed companies using IFRS will be required to file their reports in XBRL.

Why XBRL is Gaining Around the World

The past ten to fifteen years has seen a remarkable transition in the way financial and business information is reported to regulators, governments and investors. Central to this change has been the role of eXtensible Business Reporting Language.

XBRL has been adopted by the SEC in the US, Companies House and HMRC in the UK, The MCA in India, the governments of Australia, New Zealand, Denmark, China, India and Japan, among others, and is scheduled for adoption by ESMA (European Securities and Markets Authority), the oversight body responsible for securities legislation in the European Union. ESMA will require all EU companies to file with it using inline XBRL (an advanced form of XBRL) for periods after Jan 1, 2020. These adoptions cover a majority of the world’s major corporations.

Intermediaries around the world are increasingly using this information to analyze and compare the results of public companies. Databanks are being built that assemble the XBRL data of companies for the benefit of investors and others.

What is driving the massive change? There are short term and long term answers to this question.

The short-term benefits of XBRL rest on the ability to transfer information between systems on different platforms easily and enable the automated analysis of that information. Since XBRL reports are based on internationally recognized standards, all of the information stated in XBRL can be accessed and analyzed with the same tools. Many of the analytical steps taken can be automated thus not requiring the labour of people. ThIs makes it possible for regulators and others, as it did with the SEC, to expand its coverage of filings without hiring new workers. Similarly, it also makes it possible for analysts to expand their coverage and, importantly, to conduct more in-depth analysis in particular areas.

The longer-term benefits are driven by the general shift of reporting to the use of more advanced analytics by a variety of users of business reports as well as the increased use of data in addition to pre-formatted reports to digest the financial reports of companies. We see companies placing data tools and XBRL information on their websites.  

Another long-term benefit has been the use of XBRL for Standardized Business Reporting (SBR) for reporting to governments. SBR makes it possible to substantially reduce the duplication that always exists in reporting to governments. For example, an income tax authority typically requires that income elements like net income be reported to it while the same information is reported to the statistical agency, securities regulators and industry specific regulators.

Elimination or reduction of this duplication saves large amounts of money for companies in their compliance costs, such as the millions of dollars saved in Australia.

Business financial affairs have become more complex over recent decades and disclosure of the information necessary to understand those affairs in the traditional paper-based way has become increasingly untenable. Such reports have become long and complicated to the point that most investors can’t consume them – or don’t have time. There is a better way, and that way has been found in the use of data-based reporting and the use of XBRL.

Canadian XBRL Perspectives
Advanced Data Management - From XBRL Canada
	JuLY 2017
Up-to-date News and Information on XBRL as it affects Canada – Special Edition XBRL Canada Workshop – September 27, 2017, 8:30 AM – 1:00 PM  Filing in XBRL as a Foreign Private Issuer with the SEC Location – Offices of CPA Canada 9th floor, 277 Wellington St, Toronto, Ontario Background - In 2009, the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) published a rule (Rule 33-9002) requiring all US domestic and foreign private issuers who submit financial reports using US GAAP or IFRS to the SEC. to provide financial statement information in XBRL (Extensible Business Reporting Language), a format intended to improve the usefulness of the reports to investors. While US GAAP filers have been providing XBRL versions of their reports for many years now, IFRS filers were unable to comply because of the lack of a supported IFRS taxonomy. This prevented most Canadian Companies from filing. Recent Major Event - In March, the SEC announced support of the IFRS taxonomy, a move that will affect both IFRS filers and US GAAP filers. Now, Canadian cross-listed companies using IFRS will be required to file their reports in XBRL. What you will learn – 1. How the SEC's support for the 2016 IFRS Taxonomy means IFRS Filers will be required to provide XBRL, and when. 2. What filers and those that support them need to know about Rule 33-9002, the EDGAR Filer Manual, and other resources to help prepare XBRL files. 3. About Inline XBRL, and plans that may impact all XBRL filers, including experienced US GAAP Filers and new IFRS Filers. Your Presenter is Eric E. Cohen, CPA, of Rochester, NY. Eric is an internationally known XBRL specialist who has been involved in educating the XBRL community on behalf of XBRL International, XBRL US and XBRL Canada for many years. The Fee  - $50 To Register, click here for the Registration page on the XBRL Canada Website. TO BE REMOVED FROM THIS MAILING LIST, PLEASE REPLY WITH UNSUBSCRIBE IN THE MESSAGE Additional Information XBRL Canada Supported and administered by The Chartered Professional Accountants of Canada 277 Wellington St W Toronto, Ont M5V3H2 Newsletter Editor Gerald Trites, FCA gtrites@xbrl.ca Website www.xbrl.ca