iXBRL, the last chapter?

Slowly but surely it’s becoming clear that Twinfield is going to show the public its iXBRL solution during the National Accountancy day for the first time. The ‘iXBRL scene’ is starting to take note, which we in turn are noticing through all of our interactive channels of communication. More and more questions are being asked and requests made.

It’s easy to spot the ‘connoisseurs’ who have been following this standard for a while. I’m also noticing a kind of acquiescence because it has taken such a long time for something to become available. Some have been brave and taken risky initiatives, but the real quantities have failed to materialise just yet. By quantities I mean numbers of financial reports that are exchanged via the iXBRL format. Let me make clear that I’m not an accountant. I have, however, worked in IT over the past 20 years, and in that time I’ve seen a lot of different standards come and go.

The one thing all these standards have in common is the hype that surrounds them and the relatively long time it takes for them to really take off afterwards. Whether we’re talking about network standards, process standards or document size standards, it virtually always works the same. Standards only work when they’re accepted across the board, and are therefore always big names. Of course you secretly hope for your own invention to become the de facto standard, but only very few people have managed that. Then again: when a standard stands, it stands in a polder landscape like we have in the Netherlands.

It’s like an assessment interview whereby the interviewee has everything focussed on that one talk, that single moment. It inevitably leads to disappointment: the expectations for the interview were far too high. It’s the same with standards. Everything is focussed on finding the one standard that solves all problems and makes all others redundant. And in this too, many are disappointed.

For iXBRL, however, it looks like we’re starting on the last chapter. Will all the effort and energy we’ve put into it over the past years, finally pay off? Although I do think it will take longer than we want or hope. In the previous blog item, I mentioned Sail Amsterdam as our finishing line, so let’s see where we are  in 2015. If implemented in the right way , the iXBRL standard can prove advantageous for both accountant and entrepreneur.

Twinfield keeps saying it: the minimum condition for maximum results is digitising the entire chain of accounts’ processing.  This means that, working from the source (the accounts), one moves towards compiling a  financial report or dashboard in a digital chain. This report can then be digitally exchanged with third parties. In Twinfield, ten thousands of accounts’ sources are stored. The logical next step is to enable, in an online financial report on the basis of iXBRL, going to detail level, the booking line and even the underlying invoice.   No intermediate stages, no conversions, no import and export; just ‘real time drill down’, as the Americans would say.

I’m looking forward to the last chapter. Last weekend, at Sail Amsterdam, I tried and imagined where we’re going to be in 5 years.

Author: Mark Appel, Marketing manager Twinfield International.