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Transparency by Stakeholder EngagementMarch 5th, 2010 by Stewart McKie - Executive Advisor
This brief lesson in corporate transparency Author’s Choice: Don’t Ignore the Transparency Imperative advocates that transparency is not just about presenting accurate, accessible and comparable information (e.g. using globally adopted standards such as XBRL) it is also about establishing a new level of engagement with the stakeholders of an organization. The example comes from a new book The Responsibility Revolution: How the Next Generation of Business Will Win. 3 Levels of Financial Report TransparencyFebruary 25th, 2010 by Stewart McKie - Executive Advisor
An interesting post at the Accounting Elf discusses how financial statements should be more like blogs. With the rise of social media and the generally higher expectations of information consumers, this is an important topic. Financial reports are after all just a channel of communication between an organization and its stakeholders and there’s certainly a lot that could be done in this area. Read the rest of this entry » Continuous ComplianceFebruary 22nd, 2010 by Stewart McKie - Executive Advisor
Governance, Risk and Compliance (GRC) spending is increasing in the face of more regulation and investor demand, which is why Continuous Control Monitoring (CCM) software is expected to be a top investment in 2010 according to analysts AMR Research. The interest in CCM is another good reason for using XBRL internally within your organization. Read the rest of this entry » Complexity & Chaos vs. Clarity & CommunicationFebruary 12th, 2010 by Stewart McKie - Executive Advisor
The C words – complexity and chaos or clarity and communication are at the root of the Global Accounting Alliance’s (GAA) latest report – Making Financial Reporting Simpler and More Useful (The Way Forward). People seem to think that financial reporting is too complex, there is not enough clarity and that existing standards, as they evolve guided by committees of blind watchmakers, are contributing to the chaos. The GAA ends the report with this statement: It is a question of human behaviour. The continual urge to add more and more refinements and additions to the financial reporting process has to be curtailed. There has to be an active effort to remove elements which are now either unneccesary or have been found wanting. Financial reports have become Maslovian examples of ’self-actualization’ carried to extremes (are you lost yet?) The GAA aims to ‘nudge’ all the players in the financial reporting debate to make the necessary changes. Now I don’t know about you, but when people nudge me I tend to elbow them back and the next thing you know, the whole bar is on its way to A&E. Read the rest of this entry » XBRL Global Ledger: EDI 2.0?February 10th, 2010 by Stewart McKie - Executive Advisor
Back in the 1980’s I remember going to an IBM seminar evangelizing something called EDI (Electronic Data Interchange) a document messaging format designed for system-to-system operation over a VAN (value added network). I must say I always wondered what was the purpose of a network that didn’t add any value but today, despite the Internet and web services, EDI is still going strong: Particularly among e-commerce partners and in certain vertical industries e.g. automotive. So does XBRL have the potential to become a kind of EDI 2.0? Read the rest of this entry » XBRL Preparedness: But for What?January 18th, 2010 by Stewart McKie - Executive Advisor
The results are in from the November 2009 survey of XBRL Preparedness by the AICPA/XBRL US. The good news is that almost half the respondents (45%) said that preparing their XBRL filings was easier second time around. But then most things are. On the other hand respondents recognized the challenges of mapping/tag selection (15%), getting educated (10%), and validation (9%). Now I know this was not part of the survey remit but an aspect of ‘preparedness’ that was not addressed is what businesses are preparing to do when all their peers and competitors are also filing in XBRL? Read the rest of this entry » Footnote ExhumationDecember 21st, 2009 by Stewart McKie - Executive Advisor
Some very interesting facts can be buried in SEC filing footnotes – like those dug up by Michelle Leder at footnoted.org in her post Voting is now open for the worst footnote of 2009. But did you know that one of the features (ahem) buried in Crossfire is footnote exhumation? Read the rest of this entry » Connected ReportingDecember 21st, 2009 by Stewart McKie - Executive Advisor
Here at Rivet we understand that in today’s world, business reporting is about more than just the financial numbers. It’s also about at least two other “impact” dimensions: Environmental and Social. So continuing our post-Copenhagen theme, I wanted to update you on the Connected Reporting initiative from Accounting for Sustainability. Read the rest of this entry » A Contract for Emissions MonitoringDecember 20th, 2009 by Stewart McKie - Executive Advisor
Charlie Hoffman’s recent blog post A Contract for Meaning raises the interesting point that One form of writing an information exchange contract is an XBRL taxonomy, which got me thinking about Copenhagen, transparency and the Internet of Things. Read the rest of this entry » Plato and XBRLDecember 19th, 2009 by Stewart McKie - Executive Advisor
Daniel Roberts recently posted an interesting blog on XBRL and the case for iXBRL called The Logic and the Logical Cave Wall so I thought I would add a few of my own ‘random comments’ on this topic and take issue with a few statements made – just to stir things up a little… Read the rest of this entry » |
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