Phillip Engel Data Architect and Lead Technologist XBRL US

Regulators from across the globe, including the U.S. Securities & Exchange Commission (SEC), have mandated XBRL as the required electronic reporting format. Additionally, the Digital Accountability and Transparency Act (DATA) was signed into law this Spring, mandating the use of structured data standards for reporting on all federal government expenditures.  Analysts, investors, data providers, regulators and other data consumers have only begun to leverage the vast amount of XBRL data available. 

The XBRL Data Forum will bring together technologists, developers, consultants, and IT professionals to share ideas and learn new technologies and techniques in working with structured data and databases. Taylor Hawes, general manager, finance systems and operations for Microsoft, and John Connors, partner at Ignition Partners, will deliver keynotes that address trends in data consumption and how corporate financial data is being used.

“Many analysts, investors and regulators aren’t taking advantage of the data that can be pulled from SEC XBRL filings. Instead companies continue to rely on HTML filings where data must be manually extracted which is costly, time-consuming and error prone.” said Phillip Engel, data architect and lead technologist at XBRL US. “The benefits to reporting consistent financial information in XBRL include reduced costs, improved accuracy and transparency. It also makes data readable and immediately extractable.”

Sessions at the XBRL Data Forum will address the opportunities for data consumers and will include informative panels and demonstrations, interactive and small-group workshops to encourage collaborative brainstorming and technical learning covering topics such as inline XBRL, table linkbase, normalization, validation and analysis. Session leaders will also present information on new reporting domains including important opportunities in government reporting, corporate actions and construction.

About XBRL US

XBRL US is the non-profit consortium for XBRL business reporting standards in the U.S. and it represents the business information supply chain. Its mission is to support the implementation of XBRL business reporting standards through the development of taxonomies for use by U.S. public and private sectors, with a goal of interoperability between sectors, and by promoting XBRL adoption through marketplace collaboration. XBRL US has developed taxonomies for U.S. GAAP, credit rating and mutual fund reporting under contract with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission and has developed a taxonomy for corporate actions.