Although I am an accountant and tend to think of myself as conservative and intelligent, as a young adult I made the mistake of buying an inexpensive yet attractive car. It was a good looking car at the right price and boy did it seem like the best deal ever! Unfortunately, I chose style over substance and paid for it in the future – the car looked good but didn’t actually fit my needs and cost more than it’s been worth in repairs. For my next car, I carefully selected it based on my needs and value, and bought a Honda Accord. Today it remains service free and I rave about its dependability. And in fact, five years ago I traded my 1988 Honda for a brand new Honda!

I now work in the software business and the lesson is just as applicable. You get what you pay for – whether you’re shopping for a new car or for a new software solution for your business. Simple, cheap software may be flashy but it most likely has major limitations in functionality and won’t actually address all your needs effectively. The solution you choose has to address your specific business case today and grow with your company. Your process will evolve and your software solution must always be one step ahead.

If you’re a CFO, Controller, or External Financial Reporting Manager, Rivet’s Saas-based Crossfire Controller solution gives you the power to manage your internal and external financial reporting as well as your SEC XBRL mandate. Thanks to XBRL, the era of antiquated reporting processes is ending, and best of all, Rivet’s team supports you in every step of automating your SEC filing process. We’ve spent over 100,000 development hours to date building a secure solution that is driving the use of open standards and innovative technology for financial reporting and analytics… the software equivalent of a Ferrari 599 GTO!

Since XBRL is a relatively new market, some people aren’t seeing the value yet. Cost is a big factor in the decision to buy software, but saving a few bucks or picking the flashiest package out there is not the best solution to free your team from administrative tasks and flawed internal systems that reduce quality and create reporting redundancy. Look to a company who has a proven track record in the industry and whose software has been run through many a test.  And, one who is there for you if and when you need assistance.

If you’re interested in learning more about Crossfire Controller, click here. If you’re shopping around for a dependable vehicle, visit www.honda.com and tell them I sent you.

Wednesday, March 23, 2011  |  11:00am-11:45am MDT  >>REGISTER HERE NOW

Wednesday, March 16, 2011 | 11:00am-11:45am MDT >>REGISTER HERE NOW

We know you have some tough questions, so here is your chance to get them answered by the people leading the way at Rivet. Join your peers and members of the Rivet Management Team for a unique Q&A session opportunity. Our panel will be comprised of:

• Barclay Friesen, Chief Operations Officer
• Kevin Berens, Chief Product Officer
• Christy Rohrs, CPA, Director of Education

We’ll be collecting questions prior to the webinar and covering the most popular topics and taking questions live during the webinar. To increase the chance that your question gets answered, email it to us before the session!

Title:   Tough Questions, Honest Answers – Open Q&A with Rivet Management
Date:  Thursday, March 3, 2011
Time:  3:00 PM – 3:30 PM ET

Register >

We are looking forward to seeing you there!

Respectfully, we disagree.

Standing on the Shoulders of Giants

In 2010, when first wave filers submitted the initial round of detailed footnote tagged Qs, a grace period was offered to provide these companies with more time to prepare their filing.  Less than 20% of them took advantage of this grace period.  Remember that during this time, no one in the industry knew exactly what to expect.  So while the volume will increase each year, the process will become easier for filing companies as well as XBRL vendors.   Each wave of smaller filing companies will learn from the wave that filed before them.  It’s true that smaller companies don’t have the resources available to larger companies, but they can leverage the experience and the best practices established by those before them.

We developed industry-specific best practice templates based on our experience working with a quarter of the first wave, Fortune 500 companies. Smaller companies use these as a starting point to create their detailed footnote filings more efficiently and with greater comparability to industry peers – greatly reducing the amount of time it takes to complete detailed footnote tagging, often by 50%.  That does a lot to help offset the additional cost and labor involved with XBRL tagging.

There Is Still Time

Most companies have already selected or are nearing the end of the selection process for an XBRL solution provider, regardless of whether they plan to complete the work themselves or outsource their XBRL tagging.  The majority of the time needed to complete the first detail footnote tagging lies in template creation.  But companies don’t need to wait to prepare their templates – they can and should start now.  We are already on-boarding our clients in preparation for Q2 detailed tagging. With the additional benefit of industry-specific best practice templates, the majority of the work can be done before they even begin to prepare the actual 10Q or 10K.

2 Years Is Enough Time to Get It Right

Limited liability is in place for twenty four months for all filing companies, meaning they have 2 years to get their XBRL tagging right before they’ll be held liable for the accuracy of the filings.  Two years is plenty of time to get XBRL template and tagging right.  Any warnings encountered or errors received in the first XBRL submission for block or detail tagging can be corrected in plenty of time before limited liability runs out.

All XBRL vendors provide tools for use in the review process with their clients. Some are great, others leave a lot to be desired – it’s important to consider the usability and power of the review tool provided before selecting an XBRL partner.

Keep Your Pencils

While we can’t speak for other providers, we absolutely do not require a 48 hour pencils down period prior to filing.  We manage registrants’ disclosure obligations using a standard schedule which includes a best practice “pencils down” program based on the size of the registrants disclosure.  We acknowledge that 11th hour edits and subsequent events are needed, and we therefore produce 11^th hour changes for our clients on an as needed basis, every day.  This ensures current and accurate disclosure to the regulators and the markets.

The XBRL requirements may seem cumbersome, but the detailed, transparent, well-structured data can give wave 2 and wave 3 companies better “visibility”. With industry-specific best practices already being developed, the burden on wave 2 and wave 3 companies has been greatly lifted.  The SEC XBRL mandate can be accomplished – it just requires planning and the right XBRL partner.

In the pre-electronic age of accounting, ledgers were the primary point of accounting entry.  Sales transactions would be written up by salesmen and entered by accounting clerks into the sales ledger.  The record of the sale could be considered “atomic” data.  When the sales journal was closed to the general ledger and subsequently transferred to manual financial statements, the financial condition of the company could be measured.  After a review by the accounting team and the auditors, the resulting manual reports were then copied on paper and mailed to the SEC.  The company DNA was “read” by consuming the financial statement in their entirety.  Our business microscopes were not powerful enough to read into individual items at the atomic level.

Enter XBRL and a curious thing happened.  The once undiscoverable atomic source of a company’s DNA was revealed in the detail of XBRL.  No longer was a set of financial statements required to be consumed in the whole to understand a business.  With XBRL elements tagging company specific data on a skin deep level, we now can at least determine how the skin of a company was put together.  Yes, only the skin.  True slices of a company DNA can only be taken by examining all data generated by a company whether its financial or non-financial data.

Internally, companies who free up all their data for examination regardless of where it’s generated are afforded the best insight into their own DNA.  Imagine being able to see performance data, projections, import external data and integrate this data with solid ties to the accounting for business transactions.  Once “discovered” at the atomic level, business data can be used and re-used in many ways to support business decisions.

Just as scary a move from hand written ledgers to computer input, the move from computers to tagged data will take courage.  Accountants who understand the limitations of paper based reporting and long for deeper looks into the DNA of a business will embrace the true power of XBRL.

What am I talking about? Why the Financial Power List 2011: Accounting Intelligence of course - the annual top-10 of movers and shakers in the accounting world published by Accountancy Age.

Ms. Shapiro will no doubt get great satisfaction from the knowledge that very probably no other Lady in the world has been in such a position before (and very probably never will be). But at least she is on the list, flying the flag for the USA  and for XBRL and Interactive Data. And she can take comfort from the fact that apparently all it takes to move up this esteemed list is to ‘decide to adopt international accounting standards’. A mere nod for Ms. Schapiro, according to the compilers of the list.

My advice to the chairman: don’t drop off at your next big international meeting.

This webinar will cover topics we feel would help both current and future SEC filers using XBRL. We will discuss how to improve your XBRL filing process including your review process and how to educate your organization. Please join us for this helpful and informative webinar.

Title: Best Practices for Your XBRL Filing
Date: Wednesday, September 8, 2010
Time: 10:00 AM – 11:00 AM MDT

Register >>

We are looking forward to seeing you there!

Your Rivet Team