iXBRL – the final nail in the spreadsheet reporting train wreck? AccMan

iXBRL is only a matter of weeks away and panic has set in. On AccountingWeb, Excel expert Simon Hurst makes a valiant effort at seeing if he can make Excel produce a valid set of iXBRL tags. In telling words he says:

If you use tax and accounts production software then it’s easy. You’re in the hands of your supplier. For a bit of reassurance, you can go to the HMRC site to see if your supplier is in the iXBRL approved list or just “working towards”. Several suppliers have issued white papers and progress reports for additional information.

But what happens if you produce some or all of your accounts using Word or Excel? You’re now the software developer – how are your development plans for incorporating iXBRL output into each of your Word documents or Excel spreadsheets progressing? Hopefully not at all, because I’d be surprised if any organisation that doesn’t have software development as its prime focus will find it worthwhile building its own iXBRL output.

[my emphasis added]

Simon then goes on to show that even with XML capabilities in Excel, he can’t get ‘anywhere near.’ Why am I not surprised?

As someone who has continuously railed at the utter stupidity of contributing towards year-on-year evidence of high failure rates in spreadsheets since 1997, the emergence of iXBRL must surely serve as the coffin nail that finally convinces professionals that attempts at using spreadsheets as a reporting tool are borderline insane. Only the arrogant or those with too much time on their hands would fly in the face of the evidence but heh – that’s what we have spreadsheet failure conferences for.

Having said that, the developers haven’t exactly been stepping up to the plate. HMRC’s website lists 20 providers that have tested successfully with HMRC for submitting CT600. Only TWO can produce iXBRL accounts, FOUR can produce iXBRL computations while EIGHT can submit iXBRL documents. Shabby? I’d call it pathetic. Notably missing from the role call is Digita – more on them later.

I first wrote about XBRL for Dummies back on November 2007. What’s the industry been playing at the last 28 months? Twinfield has had XBRL since February 2009.

As always it seems, the UK professional software market player bitch and moan about regulatory update requirements but still leave things until the last minute. In the meantime, comments at AccountingWeb are already raising fears about the cost of managing the new formats. Guys and gals – talk to your software providers. Ask them why they’re dragging their feet. While you’re at it, remind them it’s a regulatory update so no extra charge on top of maintenance fees. Especially given HMRC has some free tools you can use.