March Towards ESEF – How do you complete the ESEF report?
What are the steps to complete an ESEF filing?
The first step is creating your taxonomy, this is done using the ESEF taxonomy and creating an extension (an edited version). The second step is inputting or importing your data to fill in the fields required by the edited taxonomy to create an XBRL file. The third step is to validate the XBRL file for filing and XBRL rules. The forth step is to render this file into the iXBRL format. The fifth step is to have the file audited. The final step is to create an archive with the edited taxonomy, the iXBRL file and the auditor’s statement for delivery, this is usually archived as a .zip file extension.
There are a variety of methods out there for getting from the required data to the final iXBRL report. At Semansys we believe in starting with good data and keeping it that way. So we begin with editing the taxonomy then use that to enter or import data followed by producing an XBRL report that is rendered into an iXBRL report. This way you know all the data is XBRL valid and you won’t encounter submission issues due to a technical inconsistencies. You can take this iXBRL file and overlay any templates you wish to make the report look like a traditional annual statement or shareholder document/presentation.
What is iXBRL? How does it affect companies?
iXBRL is data accessible in a web browser so it is both human and machine-readable. iXBRL is a combination of HMTL and XBRL (extensible business reporting language). XBRL is an XML reporting language used for standardizing structured information. iXBRL is XHTML a way to make the machine readable language of XBRL human-readable without losing all the tags that make the base language very efficient for computers to interpret and analyze. Basically, you have the ability to look at the classic style annual reports as a mixed document with data, text, and graphical interpretations but retain the baseline XBRL tags that the document is based on.
This will affect companies drastically as most are currently only producing the classic style annual reports based on their internal reporting software that doesn’t produce XBRL files or take into account taxonomies that create these XBRL files used to make the iXBRL reports. This is why we created SemansysNext to easily complete all your ESEF requirements including this iXBRL filing requirement.
Stay tuned next week for an article about ‘Trusted Application”.
For more information please contact us at info@semansys.com. We would be happy to schedule a demo or provide more detail about any of our capabilities.