TaxCalc and Arkk offer Excel iXBRL system

Simon Hurst investigates a new system for converting Excel accounts into iXBRL format for CT600 electronic submissions.

A little while ago, I looked at the mechanics of adding iXBRL links to an existing Excel spreadsheet, concluding that, unless you were a professional software developer, you really shouldn't try this at home. Lots of comments resulted, including several from suppliers telling me about their own products or forthcoming products.

One of these emails came from TaxCalc announcing its partnership with iXBRL specialist Arkk Solutions to provide an online solution for Excel users. This web-based system is now complete and undergoing testing with TaxCalc users.

TaxCalc iXBRL is for those who currently hand-draft their accounts or use a word-processor or a spreadsheet to create them. This could include a surprisingly large number of organisations. TaxCalc estimates that 35-40% of its users employ Excel as their primary or secondary tool for accounts production. The TaxCalc mechanism uses Excel templates that link the contents of particular cells to the correct iXBRL tags.

You just need to fill in the Excel templates with the figures and other information and then upload it to the TaxCalc website. The back-end web service then takes the Excel file and converts it to a correctly tagged HTML file. TaxCalc iXBRL manages the conversion and displays a history of converted files for the user to review

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