More accountants need XBRL knowledge

Accounting bodies have raised concern that accountants and other finance professionals don’t have enough knowledge of eXtensible Business Reporting Language (XBRL).

Christine Helliar, co-author of an ACCA study called XBRL: the views of stakeholders, said: ‘The International Auditing and Assurance Standards Board should complete its XBRL project and issue an ISA as soon as possible, to provide guidance on what auditors should be required to do for XBRL filings to give users confidence in the data’.

The calls from the ACCA and Federation of European Accountants (FEE) come as the UK government gears towards making the use of XBRL mandatory for all company tax returns due after March 2011.

FEE held a roundtable at the end of last month to offer accountants further guidance on XBRL entitled XBRL – the impact on accountants and auditors, which focused on raising awareness to auditors, accountants and other stakeholders.

Philip Johnson, FEE deputy president and chair of its XBRL task force, said: ‘The business case for XBRL should be made more effectively since it has the potential to be extremely beneficial to numerous stakeholders’.

Going forwards FEE said it will continue to perform more detailed work in the area of XBRL.