XBRL, the CIPC, and Business Reporting in SA: What’s Happening?

On 1 Feb 2018, Accountancy SA published an article on the impending XBRL move that clearly outlined the reasoning and benefits of a standardised XBRL reporting format.

Read it here:
ANALYSIS: Digital Financial Reporting For XBRL

In short, digital financial reporting is changing the way we do regulatory reporting and filing. The CIPC launched a program in 2016 to test the waters and start the process of moving over, and they are only the first of many reporting and regulatory bodies that will require this format in the future.

With the benefits to the SA business landscape noted, the direct benefit of changing over to XBRL may not be clear for your organisation. It may currently be simpler to use a 3^rd party XBRL printing contractor, but for many, an in-house, fully integrated solution may become a profitable addition to your business.

• With the spread of the XBRL format as a requirement throughout regulatory and reporting bodies like SARS, CIPC, and others, the need to have regular, accurate XBRL reports available will only grow.
• Continual updates, hand-overs to 3^rd party printers, and updates that are then returned to you for submission will create an increasingly large burden on your financial reporting teams – manual processes and digital reporting are difficult to reconcile.
• With separate CDM, FPM, and XBRL processes, the work may be repeated. Your financial cycle will dictate how often this is done.

XBRL reporting software can be integrated with most accounting software, which is also integrated with your financial performance management software. Enabling a fully-integrated system of collecting, analysing, distributing, and printing financial data to XBRL is a logical step in the journey to digital reporting as a standard in South Africa.

In our next blogs, we’ll investigate the top ten reasons to go the integrated route, the process you’ll follow, and the benefit of using global best-practices in a growing economy.