Interview with Daniel Roberts, CEO of raas-XBRL (part II)
Here is the second part of the interview with Mr. Daniel Roberts CEO of raas-XBRL, the past Chairman of the XBRL US Steering Committee, and member of the XBRL International Assurance Working Group.
7. Do you have experience with another project outside the USA that you would single out as particularly interesting? Could you compare that project with the SEC XBRL Mandate?
The two that immediately come to mind are the HMRC project in the UK and the SBR project in Australia. HMRC is progressing with an ‘easy in’ for the first year (mandated) for financial statements that are associated with tax returns. They have started with a “minimum set” of required data to be tagged, and have gone so far as to provide a web based template for smaller companies. In Australia the focus is on building XBRL into the entire reporting structure to government, to drive process efficiencies throughout the economy, where the private economy touches government. These are both wide ranging projects, certainly wider ranging than the SEC project.
Unfortunately we’re also seeing New Zealand step even further back from XBRL. Considering the disproportionate number of Kiwis involved in XBRL around the world, it is sad to see it not take root in Wellington.
8. How do you evaluate the work of the XBRL International and the support it provides to the local organizations and world-wide projects?
XBRL International is of course the owner of the standard and runs the XSD (XBRL Standards Board) and other working groups (such as the Assurance Working Group, a personal favorite). The biggest problem with XII is that it is and remains chronically underfunded. Years ago I gave the incoming CEO one piece of advice – build a program to achieve global adoption, then price the program, then go to the ISC and say, these are the resources we need to accomplish the program.
The latest Strategic Plan is a great step in that direction, although possibly a little meek. But it is still a great step. Of course, it is no secret that I think the proposed governance changes will not solve the problems of underfunding and lack of active volunteer support. And no matter how it is worded, keeping the Board of Directs responsible for resourcing the organization (i.e. responsible for funding) is, frankly, silly. The CEO is responsible for funding the organization, through growing membership, faster response times to the needs of the jurisdictions, and programs funded out of a growing pool of revenue and funds.
For example, the iXBRL dialect of XBRL should have come from the XSD, not from the user community. The Europeans called for a versioning standard for years, yet the chronic lack of funding and volunteers forced jurisdictions to begin developing their own versioning standards. This is a new standard, founded on and using XBRL as its core. Either XII steps up and gets in front of the needs of the market, or XII will find itself playing catch-up.
Certainly the ISC (International Steering Committee) and governance of the organization requires a major overhaul, and an overhaul is coming. Unfortunately I have little faith that it will solve the fundamental problems facing XII.
9. Are you and your company currently engaged on any of the projects which have to do with the XBRL?
As a matter of fact we are. One of the biggest challenges, as I’ve already mentioned, is the coming wave of filers with the SEC and the lack of experts, the cost, the time involved and the complexity of the standard, software and tools that are available. We’ve entered that market, quietly in the past few months, specifically because we believe that doesn’t need to be the case.
raas-XBRL takes the complexity out of compliance with the SEC’s XBRL mandate. We do this through the application of state of the art software and processes, skilled people and a longstanding commitment to XBRL.
10. Not to discuss the same topic again, I have one question not connected with the XBRL for the end. Can you recommend any good book which you have read lately?
For years now I’ve been reading a series of murder mysteries by Michael Jecks called “the last templar” series. They are set in the 1316 – 1326 (for far) and follow a few characters as they investigate murders, completely in a middle-ages, southwest England context. Very clever, and full of real historical information, which I think is vital. Of course, I also always have a history or some facet of Carthage nearby.
Posted by Ilija Šuša
on Feb 28 2011. Filed under Featured, Interviews.
You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0.
You can leave a response or trackback to this entry