2          The proposed enhancements aimed to further facilitate the filing process for businesses, and expand the taxonomy used for XBRL filing which will improve the quality of financial statements information filed in XBRL with ACRA.

 

3          Feedback was sought on two key areas (a) proposed revisions to XBRL filing requirements, and, (b) Exposure Draft (ED) ACRA Taxonomy 2012. A total of 15 written submissions were received from various stakeholders, including government agencies, professional bodies, accounting firms and individual companies. ACRA also sought feedback at four public seminars attended by over 600 participants in May and June 2012. The seminars were organised with support from professional bodies such as the Institute of Certified Public Accountants of Singapore (ICPAS), the Singapore Association of the Institute of Chartered Secretaries and Administrators (SAICSA) and the Singapore Business Federation (SBF). When evaluating the feedback, ACRA sought to take a balanced approach that would address both the needs of consumers / users of financial statements and preparers of financial statements filed in XBRL format. For consumers, the enhanced XBRL filing system aims to increase the breadth and depth of financial statements data and thus further improve the quality and comparability of the financial information. This in turn facilitates companies in their data analysis and business decision making. For preparers, the enhanced XBRL filing system will facilitate their preparation and filing of financial statements in XBRL.

 

4          ACRA implemented XBRL filing for financial statements submission in 2007. Annually, close to 60,000 corporate financial statements are filed with ACRA in XBRL format. Apart from improving the quality of financial statements data, XBRL filing also enables greater transparency in terms of financial information being released. This in turn promotes a more conducive business environment and enhances the trustworthiness and rigour of Singapore in the global marketplace.

 

 

 

4          Whilst there was support for the proposed enhancements to the XBRL filing system that would raise the quality of financial statements information filed, several respondents also highlighted that additional effort such as sufficient skills and some accounting know how, will be required on the part of preparers.

 

5          ACRA understands the concerns raised and would like to emphasise that the proposed enhancements to the XBRL system will ultimately benefit the business community. This will further improve the access to quality financial statements information which is essential for businesses and investors to making informed decisions. To help preparers adjust to the proposed enhancements of the XBRL filing system, a range of support and resources will be made available to the business community and preparers. This includes:

 

•              A new preparation tool to enable businesses to prepare their XBRL financial statements offline, with the ability to make use of existing financial statements in MS Word/Excel format. This preparation tool will be available at no cost to the preparers;

 

•              Subsidised training seminars on the revised XBRL filing requirements and the new XBRL preparation tool will be provided. ACRA will also be working with training partners to ensure the availability of training courses on the revised XBRL filing requirements and new XBRL preparation tool;

 

•              Help guides to provide preparers with ready reference on how to file under the revised XBRL filing requirements and the use of the XBRL preparation tool; 

 

•              ACRA will engage accounting software vendors that are keen to develop XBRL capabilities in their products and provide them with useful resources for their development. This includes a validation Application Programming Interface (API) that accounting software vendors can integrate into their products for validating XBRL instances generated from their software packages.

 

•              More time for companies to prepare a full set of financial statements in XBRL. During the first year of implementation, no penalty will be imposed on non public-listed companies if they hold their Annual General Meeting (AGM) or file Annual Return within one month after the prescribed period in Companies Act.

 

 

6          Mixed feedback was received on whether companies should continue to be allowed flexibility in the presentation of their financial statements or be required to follow a fixed template prescribed by ACRA. Some respondents preferred a fixed format including a consistent naming terminology between financial statements presented for purposes of AGM and XBRL filing. Others preferred flexibility that would allow them to customise the description of the elements used in their AGM financial statements and those used in the XBRL financial statements to reflect similarity as these are the preferred description by the management.

 

7          In evaluating the feedback, ACRA took reference from the SFRS (Singapore Financial Reporting Standards) and SFRS for Small Entities, which are, principle-based accounting standards. Thus, flexibility is given to the companies in determining their financial statements presentation. Hence, ACRA will not be prescribing a fixed template for financial statements preparation for all companies.

 

 

8          Respondents also highlighted concerns with a standard taxonomy as this will require additional effort for the preparers. There were also suggestions for the ACRA Taxonomy 2012 to cater for unique presentation format such as ‘hybrid’ presentation (e.g. company disclosing cost of goods sold with depreciation expense on income statement). To allow flexibility in disclosure of data elements, some respondents requested ACRA to reinstate the usage of user-described fields within ACRA Taxonomy 2012.

 

9          Taking into account the feedback, the revised XBRL filing requirements and the new XBRL preparation tool will allow for the following flexibility to the preparers:

·         Usage of company-specific labels; and

·         Re-ordering of elements within categories, e.g. for Statement of Financial Position by liquidity.

 

10        In addition, ACRA will draw up a list of accounting synonyms to assist preparers in mapping different accounting terms with the same meaning. As the ACRA Taxonomy 2012 is designed to comply with the Companies Act and the prescribed Singapore accounting standards namely the SFRS and SFRS for Small Entities, ‘hybrid’ presentation, which is not consistent with the accounting standards, would not be catered for. As for the feedback on re-instating user-described fields, it was observed that such fields result in data comparability issues for the consumers. The alternative of allowing for companies’ extension taxonomies would, on the other hand, mean that the preparers will need to be equipped with specialised XBRL knowledge. As such, ACRA has decided to remove the user-described fields and adopted a closed taxonomy that does not allow preparers to add or define their own company specific elements. Instead, ACRA will incorporate data elements commonly used in financial statements, on top of what is required in the accounting standards to allow preparation of most financial statements without the need to create new elements.

 

11         The summary report of the feedback received, and ACRA’s responses to the feedback are at Annex A. It is also available for download at www.acra.gov.sg.

 

 

12        ACRA would like to take this opportunity to thank our stakeholders including our professional partners and members of the business community who had taken their time to respond to this public consultation. We also extend our appreciation to all who attended the seminars to hear more about the proposed enhancements and provided their feedback thereafter.

 

13        ACRA will now work towards implementing the new enhanced XBRL filing system in late 2013. As part of the next stage of development, ACRA will hold focus group testing and public consultation on the new XBRL preparation tool in the first quarter of 2013. Following which, details of the revised XBRL filing requirements, new ACRA Taxonomy 2012 and the finalised new XBRL preparation tool will be made known to the public in the second quarter of 2013.

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Eileen Ng

Manager, Corporate Communications

DID: 6372 4271 

Email: Eileen_ng@acra.gov.sg 

 

The Accounting and Corporate Regulatory Authority (ACRA) is the national regulator of business entities and public accountants in Singapore. ACRA also plays the role of a facilitator for the development of business entities and the public accountancy profession.

 

The mission of ACRA is to provide a responsive and trusted regulatory environment for businesses and public accountants. As at 31 October 2012, 405,307 business entities and 989 public accountants practising in public accounting firms, accounting limited liability partnerships and accounting corporations are registered with ACRA.

 

For more information, please visit www.acra.gov.sg

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[1]  eXtensible Business Reporting Language (XBRL) is an international standard language for communicating business data. XBRL enhances the business and regulatory environment by providing greater transparency and efficiency to both regulators and information users.