Filing Financial Statements in XBRL: How-To, Lessons Learned, and Best Practices

In the past few years, eXtensible Business Reporting Language (XBRL) has emerged to meet increased regulatory and transparency requirements for financial reporting. The global connectivity of the Internet has encouraged the rapid development of XBRL standards. Effective December 15, 2008, the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) will require companies with more than $5 billion in market capitalization to file their financial statements in XBRL. Over the following two years, all publicly traded companies in the US will be required to file using XBRL. In this paper, learn the fundamentals of XBRL, the steps in the filing process, and lessons from an actual filing with the SEC.