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Five points for iXBRL success

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19th Aug 2011
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Phill Robinson, CEO of IRIS Accountancy Solutions, says now is a good time to put in place a five point plan for iXBRL success.

The arrival of iXBRL mandation in April 2011 represented one of the greatest compliance challenges seen in the accountancy profession since the introduction of online filing in 1997. While many firms managed to make a smooth transition to the new format, figures from HMRC showed that one in three businesses failed to successfully submit their corporation tax returns in April. Of the 66,513 returns that were submitted with iXBRL attachments during April, a staggering 22,000 needed to be re-submitted.

With April representing just the start of the iXBRL journey, now is a good time to reflect on this first wave of submissions and put in place a five point plan for iXBRL success:

  1. Review: If you have already made a submission, take a step back and review how the process went. What worked, what would you change next time around? Is more training and education needed?
  1. Refine: There is no one size fits all solution for iXBRL. The end goal is the same but there are different routes that you can take in order to reach compliance
  • Tagging tools: If you prefer to complete your accounts in Word and Excel this is still possible, but a separate tagging tool can be used in order to make the returns iXBRL-compliant
  • Account production software: Accounts production software will ensure that elements within a set of accounts will be automatically tagged with the appropriate iXBRL definition. You can still change the tags as required but this kind of software will make iXBRL submissions much quicker, leaving you time to focus on more pressing client work
  • Outsource to the experts: iXBRL is complex and takes time to get to grips with. If you don’t have the resource in-house to manage the transition, then your accounts can be outsourced to trained experts who will ensure your submission is compliant
  1. Responsibility: iXBRL is a complex issue but it is here to stay. It’s worth making a person in your company responsible for understanding the latest changes to the requirement. Many companies managed to get through the Government Gateway with the bare minimum of sixteen tags in response to the April deadline but they will need to get to grips with as many as 5,000 tags within just five years so it’s worth having a dedicated member of the team to keep on top of the changing taxonomy.
  1. Roadmap: Many accountancy professionals underestimated how long it would take to make their first iXBRL submission using iXBRL. For your next, or event first, submission, work out a timeline leading up to when your next submission will need to be made and make sure you stick to it to avoid a peak in your workload when it comes to the returns deadline.
     
  2. Revolutionise: While many firms have seen iXBRL as a ‘challenge that must be met’ it is also an opportunity for accountancy professionals to change the way that work across the practice, boosting efficiency and leaving accountants with more time to spend with clients on higher fee generating work.

Whichever way you look at it, iXBRL is here to stay. As with any new regulation, it is bound to test the profession, as firms across the country familiarise themselves with the requirement and increasing taxonomy. By taking time out now to plan the next phase of submissions, accountants can be in a much stronger position to meet their next deadline and ensure that all submissions are correctly tagged and make it through the government gateway first time, every time.

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By harishkanabar
19th Aug 2011 17:38

IXBRL

It really depends on the software that is chosen to submit the returns.

There are too many useless, cheap and cheerful software programs that do not work.

 

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By tom2another
31st Aug 2011 13:39

IXBRL - waist of time and money

Over the years I had developed my own spread sheets for the preperation of clients accounts and tax computations - every alteration reflected through the accounts tax comp etc. Discuss with client - play what if- all easy peasy. Then print in pdf and submit.

Now at vast expense have purchased Ditgitas Accounts prep, Corp Tax and Practise management - as all three needed to deal with iXBRL. Did this as had been using their Per Tax for years, very happily.

What a pile of poo- clunky, un user friendly, bad design user interface - not intuitive, and slow! Have to now prepare accounts, enter into CT programme, get the CT - go back and enter into the accounts, every time you make an alteration and want to look at the accounts etc takes forever.(quicker using paper and pencil!) 

Have had to go back to using old spread sheet version just so that I can have meaningful discusions with clients, and then shove it into digitas stuff.

Even when Digita says its all ok to go,the translation to iXBRL picks up rounding errors and rejects it, or the Revenue web site does- often as a result of a misplaced coma!

Its adding as much as a day per client - who aren't going to pay me for it - and where am I meant to find that time? Wife thinks I'm having an affair!!.

Rant Over

Tom

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By AlisonBattisby
06th Sep 2011 13:18

Arkk Solutions Plugin

Hi Tom,

Sorry to hear about your issues with Digitas Accounts.

Have you heard of Arkk Solutions? They offer an MS Office solution to iXBRL tagging. They are selling a plugin that you can use within Microsoft Word or Excel - very easy to use. 

http://arkksolutions.com/index.php/component/content/article/59

 

Cheers!

 

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