Great update Dennis. It's funny how a trickle, trickle, trickle over time, if it's a good concept becomes a tsunami when the time is right. it may take longer than you want, but if it's right it always comes.
I'm actually advising any of the terminated accountants that have an interest and aptitude in technology to look into the companies that are developing solutions around XBRL. At this point they're probably ready for strong functional SMEs to take the code home to the user.
Dennis Howlett
· 10 months ago
...and of course they will bring the kind of hunger out of which innovation grows
Richard Young
· 10 months ago
Agree with much of what you say, and I've always felt with the right approach audit could be an entirely remote, five-minute job; or would involve permanent and constant monitoring. Either way, the current audit model looks obsolete.
However, although I'm further away from this debate than I used to be, my worry is still whether usable standards are viable given the desire to obfuscate and delay by many of the agencies that need to support them (bureaucrats because they just don't like making decisions, companies because XBRL might make it easier to spot their less pleasant activities).
I used to think that it would take an earthquake to shake up the cozy ideas people had about corporations, what we want from them and how they're regulated. Well, we've had the earthquake - but too many people in business and government look like they're just trying to hold on until things "go back to normal." *Sigh*.
Dennis Howlett
· 10 months ago
I hear you Richard but it's an insanely short sighted view of the world and unsustainable in the medium term. If the UK continues to act in this way it will lose a lot of edge in the financial markets
Alexander Falk
· 10 months ago
Excellent point! And for those who wish to build such an organization focused on the technology, we have just the right XBRL developer tools that we released this month: http://blog.altova.com/2009/02/xbrl-support-add...
Paul Wilkinson
· 10 months ago
The lessons of asset backed securities disclosure are instructive with respect to all financial disclosure -- and with government backed securities (T-bills, muni's and all the other new gov't debt) trying to fill the hole left by ABS, government disclosure will also be important. See http://paulwilkinson.com. We are, indeed, living in a target-rich environment for structured disclosure using the XBRL industry standard computer reporting language.
All Comments
I'm actually advising any of the terminated accountants that have an interest and aptitude in technology to look into the companies that are developing solutions around XBRL. At this point they're probably ready for strong functional SMEs to take the code home to the user.
However, although I'm further away from this debate than I used to be, my worry is still whether usable standards are viable given the desire to obfuscate and delay by many of the agencies that need to support them (bureaucrats because they just don't like making decisions, companies because XBRL might make it easier to spot their less pleasant activities).
I used to think that it would take an earthquake to shake up the cozy ideas people had about corporations, what we want from them and how they're regulated. Well, we've had the earthquake - but too many people in business and government look like they're just trying to hold on until things "go back to normal." *Sigh*.
Or read the Ventana whitepaper "XBRL Is Not Just for Analysts and Regulators"
found at http://www.ubmatrix.com/downloads/ventanaresear...