The SEC requires financial information to be submitted two ways: as XBRL-formatted open data and as a nonsearchable text document. Crapo and Warner argue that the SEC has essentially ignored errors in XBRL submissions. The two are pushing the SEC to adopt inline XBRL, which would save preparers money because currently they must compare the separate financial statements against each other before filing, which increases compliance costs. Piwowar said, “The Commission should move promptly to modify EDGAR to permit inline XBRL and commence a voluntary pilot program to obtain more information about the costs and benefits of an inline XBRL system.”
THE STATS
Annual XBRL filing costs for 69% of small public companies using outsourced solutions:
$10K or less
Source: XBRL US and AICPA,
February 2016
