XBRL Detailed Tagging Task Force 2012 - Call for Participants

17 April 2012

Call for listed IFRS filers to participate in a voluntary XBRL Detailed Tagging Task Force

Together with the Industry Practice Project, the IFRS Foundation is establishing a task force to examine detailed XBRL tagging in IFRS financial statements, and is looking to work directly with preparers from public companies from different industries and regions. [1] The Foundation is re-initiating this task force as a follow-up to the Detailed Tagging Task Force (DTTF) that was set up last year and which proved to be very successful and mutually beneficial.

Objectives

The aim of the task force is for public companies[2] to produce fully-tagged XBRL financial statements and selected footnotes using the 2012 IFRS Taxonomy.

The task force will be a means for the IASB XBRL team to engage directly with filers and obtain feedback on the ease of use and completeness of the IFRS Taxonomy. Your input is very important as it will contribute to the setting of a high quality taxonomy that meets the needs of all stakeholders.

Participants

The IFRS Foundation is seeking participation from preparers of financial statements for public companies who report in IFRS. Participation from companies operating in all industries and geographical regions are welcome.

Time line

Companies interested in participating in the task force should express their interest by 30 April. Task force participants will be chosen and notified by 7 May. The first meeting of task force participants will take place on 14 May by teleconference.

It is expected that participating companies will have or gain sufficient knowledge to be able to produce detailed XBRL filings by the end of October, which is when the initiative will be completed.

Process

Participating companies will:

Resource requirements

Participants will be expected to examine each of their financial statement note disclosures in detail, to undertake the tagging process and to share the results of this work with other participants via fortnightly one-hour conference calls and two one-day meetings which will take place in London.

Benefits for participating companies

Although participating companies will retain ultimate responsibility for preparing the XBRL filings, they will be working directly with the authors of the IFRS Taxonomy who will provide assistance throughout the XBRL tagging and document creation process on tagging and disclosure choices;

Compliance with filing rules and regulatory requirements; Filing review and rendering.

Participating companies will also be able to share and learn from the filings and from the experiences of other participants.

What software should be used?

The IFRS Taxonomy 2012 has been developed and tested using a number of XBRL tools. However the IFRS Foundation does not recommend or endorse particular products. The IFRS Foundation XBRL Team is familiar with most XBRL products that are currently available on the market and is therefore happy to work with the software tools chosen by participating companies.

Will the filings be made public?

All information and filings will remain confidential, and will not be shared without the consent of participating companies. However, the IFRS Foundation encourages participating companies to publish their filings.

Contact details

Companies interested in participating in the task force are invited to express their interest:

The IFRS Foundation will accept applications until 30 April.


[1] The Industry Practice Project focuses on activity specific disclosure whereas the Detailed Tagging Detailed Task Force considers financial disclosures that are common across all activities.

[2] Intentionally, we shall only interact with issuers, neither with service companies nor with software vendors