The XBRL reporting software tags pushed by the Securities and Exchange Commission are moving on to phase two, as the SEC debuts IDEA, a database to collate the XBRL tags attached to electronic filings. XBRL reporting software tags allow public companies and mutual funds to submit information in a standardized, tagged format for analysis and comparison by investors, government officials and citizens. IDEA users will be able to instantly collate information from thousands of companies and forms. The SEC currently has a voluntary program for tagging financial documents with XBRL. Microsoft, General Electric and United Technologies are already participating in the program.The Securities and Exchange Commission debuted its successor to the agency's
EDGAR database Aug. 19 with Chairman Christopher Cox proclaiming the new
interactive database to be faster, more accurate and more meaningful than the
1980s-era EDGAR.
Called IDEA (Interactive Data Electronic Applications), the database is
based on a completely new architecture being built from the ground up. The
system is built on the XBRL (Extensible Business Reporting Language) tagging
format that allows public companies and mutual funds to submit information in a
standardized, tagged format for analysis and comparison.
The SEC has already formally
proposed requiring U.S. companies to provide financial information using
interactive XBRL data beginning as early as 2009. The SEC has separately
proposed requiring mutual funds to submit their public filings using
interactive data. The SEC currently has a voluntary program for tagging
financial documents with XBRL. Microsoft, General Electric and United
Technologies are already participating in the program.
The decision to eventually replace EDGAR marks the SEC's transition from
collecting paper forms and documents to making the information itself freely
available to the public.
"IDEA will ensure that the SEC continues to stay ahead of the needs of
investors," Cox said. "IDEA's launch represents a fundamental change
in the way the SEC collects and publishes company and fund information—and in
the way that investors will be able to use it."
EDGAR will continue to be available for the indefinite future. During the
transition to IDEA, investors will be able to take advantage of new
interactive, IDEA-like features that will be grafted onto EDGAR in the short
run.
The transition will make it possible for investors to use IDEA's
advanced search capabilities and to use the information from EDGAR within
spreadsheets and analytical software, which is not possible with EDGAR. The
EDGAR database also will continue to be available as an archive of company
filings for past years.
"When Congress created the SEC, and even when EDGAR was launched, the
markets worked on paper and by mail. Today, the marketplace works online and by
e-mail," said William D. Lutz, who is leading the SEC's 21st Century
Disclosure Initiative. "Companies and investors alike compile, analyze and
produce information and reports electronically. With the move to an electronic
data-based filing system, the SEC will not only keep pace with the markets, but
will provide investors with a dynamic, usable system they can use to get the
information they need."
Formatting financial documents with XBRL allows the data to be easily
searched on the Internet, downloaded into spreadsheets, reorganized in
databases and put to any number of other comparative and analytical uses. An
international nonprofit consortium of approximately 450 major companies,
organizations and government agencies is developing the open-source,
royalty-free language.
David Blaszkowsky, the SEC's director of Interactive
Disclosure, said, "After 75 years of document-based static financial
reporting, whether in paper documents or in electronic equivalents like PDFs,
it is exciting to see the SEC poised to cross the 'data threshold' and help
investors receive financial information that is dynamic, usable and ready to go
as they make their investment decisions."
Enterprise Applications 
