Rivet Software » Partners

XBRL is Good; Partnership Options for law and CPA firms

Brooke Keith - Channel Partnership Operations Specialist — Thu, 03 Feb 2011 16:00:15 +0000

When Hollywood scriptwriters pitch their movie ideas to studio executives, it’s common practice to draw on the familiar in order to quickly and effectively describe the next mega blockbuster. In the financial world, XRBL is no doubt the next big thing. To draw on the above reference, the future of XBRL is like Wall Street meets the DaVinci Code. With that visual, my mind goes to Michael Douglas and Tom Hanks feverously tagging financials, saving the world, all the while questioning current financial dogma and redeeming the Gordon Gecko’s of the world, one XBRL element at a time.

As the Wave 3 SEC filers are rounding the proverbial XBRL bend, let’s add one more angle to our Hollywood pitch; Wall Street meets The DaVinci Code meets The Firm. The Firm(s) in this particular storyline are the law and CPA firms that claim many of these Wave 3 SEC filers as their clients. Clients that are going to be looking to their trusted advisors for guidance to secure a fairy-tale ending come June 30, 2011 when the SEC mandate kicks in for them. These firms can be the knights in shining XBRL armor for their clients but they need to start setting the scene, which means choosing an XBRL vendor now.

To continue on with the movie mogul theme, Rivet’s partnership department has already been helping firms produce their next big thing by offering various partnership options for their clients’ XBRL needs. We have found that some firms want to take a leading role and are interested in setting up an in-house XBRL practice, while others want to focus on their core competencies and play more of a supporting role. They can make this happen by simply referring their clients to Rivet, the XBRL market leader. Rivet can be as involved as the partner deems necessary. The shared goal is that the client’s XBRL needs are met and the firm’s award-winning client service remains intact.

As the Academy Awards near, Rivet has already been rolling out the XBRL red carpet for law firms and CPA firms as the SEC mandate approaches. The time is now to find out about the various partnership options that are available from Rivet: in-house, out-source or somewhere in between. Rivet’s partnership department is here to serve as a resource for firms to determine what option makes the most sense.

As we all know, before “The Envelope, Please” echoes into the hushed-filled, star-studded room there is usually a recap of the films being honored. Queue Wall Street meets The DaVinci Code meets the Firm.

The scene is an imposing mahogany-encased Wall Street court room. Enter Michael Douglas circa 2011, chin juts forward, he clears his throat, straightens his J.C. Penney tie, and with that slow, deliberate conviction and now with a new found transparent honor states . . . XBRL is Good.

For more information on partnering with Rivet, contact us today.

Links:

Rivet Software Partnership Overview – download »

Current Rivet Partners – view list »

The Tale of Two Projects (Part Two: XBRL Loader for Thomson Reuters)

Emily Huang - VP, Business Technology & Cofounder — Wed, 03 Jun 2009 18:17:12 +0000

Think globally, think XBRL!

In September 2008, Rivet and Thomson Reuters began working on an XBRL-related project for the Reuters Fundamentals product. The project released earlier this month and the first stage of delivery, handling Japanese XBRL is now in production.

“Thomson Reuters is the world’s leading source of intelligent information for business and professionals. Our Reuters Fundamentals offering continues to dynamically evolve as clients demand more and faster data. By integrating XBRL into our existing process clients benefit from enhanced speed and reliability within the same products they use today.” Says Geoffrey Horrell, who is responsible for Investment and Advisory Content Strategy for XBRL at Thomson Reuters.

Reuters Fundamentals is created and maintained by an experienced data collection team that includes data on:

Over 47,500 active companies, representing over 99% of world market capitalization
Coverage of all constituents of all major indices
Over 15,800 inactive companies
160+ exchanges in 107 countries
25 years of history for US companies, and 12 years for non-US companies

Some of the markets covered by Thomson Reuters have already adopted XBRL as the standard for financial reporting, and other markets are soon to follow. Thomson Reuters has an opportunity to streamline the data collection process with XBRL being center stage.

Rivet helps to build a bridge between traditional business intelligence and XBRL

During the process of creating a solution to assist Thomson Reuters, we have learned a great deal about how different each market could be in regards to the financial information. XBRL as a standard has provided a framework to enable financial transparency and financial data integrity, but to fully realize the benefits that XBRL can bring to the investors, software vendors and solution providers will continue to fine-tune the traditional processes already in place and invent new ways to best utilize XBRL.

With XBRL, financial data can be verified and validated before loading into any downstream systems for processing; the ‘quality’ of the information can certainly be highly enhanced. Also, the level of human resources previously required to get the data into loadable format is no longer necessary. I am not saying that all human interaction is eliminated, but with the incorporation of XBRL and automated, systematic processing, the human resources can be used to turn the data into valuable information. Delivering the financial information on a timely basis with lower costs and with greater accuracy is now an achievable goal.

Enhancing the Financial Information Ecosystem is “technically” simple

Thomson Reuters plays a very important role in the financial information ecosystem. Working with Rivet to add XBRL support to the complex information processing was not a huge “technical” challenge. Rivet brought to the table over 100,000 hours of collective XBRL experience and wealth of products/tools for supporting XBRL parsing, rendering. Under Thomson Reuters superb guidance, the project has moved from a conceptual model to a web-delivered solution in a short period of time. Since the first few markets the application supports are non-US, the project also gave Rivet a wider exposure to how XBRL was implemented in various global markets.

It was a valuable and enjoyable project for Rivet. Collaboration was formed and strengthened with each party walking away with a better understanding of how XBRL can be best used to benefit the investors.

Conversations with Financial Printers Regarding XBRL

Kurt Roscow, Vice President of Sales & Operations — Wed, 20 May 2009 17:27:09 +0000

It’s no secret that some of the first movers in the marketplace that are adopting XBRL on a practical, functional, and operational level were the large financial printers. This is even more true today, as the SEC XBRL mandate begins to wash through the economy for real. While many associations, interest groups, and advisory panels considered and debated the pros and cons related to XBRL adoption, the printers in contrast got right to work building the practice, pushing the discussions, and looking for software to help solve the problem.

A common theme is that the XBRL business model for them is requiring far more accounting expertise then they had first thought. This is a new twist and a new challenge to an industry traditionally focused on pure operational execution. This new variable, some accounting judgment on top of new and sometimes confusing rules, is causing some gears to grind in the traditionally smooth and intense operations business.

It is also no secret that Rivet has some key business partnership arrangements with various financial printers. Most companies in the financial printing industry are in a state of tremendous change. Change thrust upon them at the structural and the industry level as represented by mergers and consolidations within the changing economics, and self directed change within their own organizations as evidenced by new service offerings and gardening out less profitable ventures at a faster and faster pace.

With all this change and quick call to action in the printer space, there are lots of questions back and forth, and many perspectives bandied about. What does the end commercial customer want? How do they want it delivered? By when? At what price? What will the competition do? Now and in the long run? What are the real value adds to the equation and for how long? Is this sustainable?

Nearly every printer in this space has commented one way or the other how the XBRL business is different and how it is harder to get a fix and a trajectory of the unfolding of that XBRL business.

What I do hear from the same group of financial printers is a deep appreciation for the ease of use of Rivet tools and what that means to them from an efficiency and effectiveness basis. Right behind that is praise for Rivet’s deep accounting culture, expertise, and willingness to help them adjust to the new road ahead, regardless of business model employed today or the models they are considering for the future. One thing for certain is this is a “change or change” model for the near term.