XBRL Simplified by Chiranjiv Kumar

What is XBRL?

Standard definition - XBRL stands for eXtensible Business Reporting Language. It is a language for the electronic communication of business information, providing major benefits in the preparation, analysis and communication of business information.  It offers cost savings, greater efficiency and improved accuracy and reliability to all those involved in supplying or using business information.

Explanation 1 – What a company has in a non-XBRL world is a bunch of pdf files, excel and html files with it. And combining those we get monolithic information... (Means hard to analyze). Every company is filing in its own format. It will take much time to analyze those information. In XBRL world, each piece of information is assigned a particular (taxonomy) so that every company’s financial statement can look alike so it can be analyzed and can be even passed on to other company very easily. Globally it is very beneficial.

Explanation 2 – Let me go this way. When you go to the grocery store you buy a carton of milk at the counter, the checkout man pull out his barcode reader and scan the barcode of the carton. What you see is the amount you are paying but what the store knows by scanning when it was manufactured, its expiry, name, manufacturing details etc. Similarly, in XBRL every particular of financial information is allotted a particular term (taxonomy) and the amount corresponding it contains a lot of information about its contents. That taxonomy is standardized for all the companies globally.

Why XBRL?

Well using the XBRL saves us from many hassles.

1. Arrangement of Financial Statements made easy – As a student or an accountant, if one wants to analyze the information then one will visit different websites look for financial statements which are in different format for different companies. Then copy it to excel and adjust the formatting and then putting them into a specific desired format. This can be very tedious and time consuming. Here XBRL comes into action. One can simply download the XBRL format file from companies’ websites and use an XBRL viewer to view those files. Each company’s format will be the same.
2. Comparison for financial analysts/ students made easy – As I discussed above, consolidation of accounts of different companies is quick. So, comparison of the same would be easy. Whether you are financial analyst assessing the viability of the company or just student working on some project, XBRL format can be a true savior.
3. Cost reduction for investment companies – As consolidation is made easy by XBRL, the company will be no more in need of employees kept for the same purpose.
4. Sharing information among companies made easy – Imagine a world without XBRL where your company want some information from other company and they send you a pdf/excel which is non-understandable. You kept on looking for what you want, searching all the day which can be tiring. With the help of XBRL, information exchange is made easy as you can easily point out the particulars you need from other company’s financial statement.
5. Opens employment opportunities – This is the obvious point that introduction of XBRL requires knowledge and attracts advices from professional like CA/CMA thereby creating employment.

XBRL in India – Requirements?

The MCA has mandated the reporting of financial statements for all the companies which are:

1. Listed in India + their Indian Subsidiaries.

2. Having a paid up capital of Rs. 5 Crores and above.

3. Having a turnover of Rs. 100 Crores and above.

Chiranjiv Kumar

Owner of FundsPedia.com

Facebook - https://www.facebook.com/chiranjiv.captor

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Third Year Of Indian XBRLisation

Third Year Of Indian XBRLisation

Considering the fact that there is no change in the XBRL taxonomy and the MCA Validation tool for the Financial Year 2012-13, the XBRL filings has been started well in time for the third year of MCA’s mandate, in view of the General Circular No. 1/2013 dated January 15, 2013. Last year, besides the filing of annual financial statements, the Ministry of Corporate Affairs has also mandated the filings of Cost Audit Report and Cost Compliance Report in XBRL format. The scope of the mandate has not been increased for this year and it is same as that of the previous year.

With the successful completion of the two years of Ministry’s mandate, eXtensible Business Reporting Language (XBRL) is, now, not a new concept. We all are aware that instead of treating financial information as a block of text, XBRL provides a machine-readable tag to identify each unique individual item of data in the financial statements. By XBRLising the financial information, the data becomes “intelligent” and is capable of generating various types of analytical reports for the regulators, analysts, investors and other agencies which are involved in the analyses of financial statements. For assigning an appropriate “tag” to the data, taxonomy (dictionary of all financial and non-financial reporting requirements) is required.

Background of XBRL Implementation in India

Filing of the annual financial statements in XBRL format started from the financial year 2010-11 onwards using C&I taxonomy vide MCA’s General Circular No. 09/2011 dated 31^st March, 2011 for the following class of companies:

i)                    All companies listed in India and their Indian subsidiaries;

ii)                  All companies having a paid up capital of Rs. 5 crores and above;

iii)                All companies having a turnover of Rs. 100 crores and above.

Banking companies, power companies, insurance companies and Non-Banking Financial Companies (NBFCs) were kept outside the purview of XBRL filings owing to their sector specific requirements.

Later on 6^th July, 2012, MCA vide its General Circular No. 16/2012 has come out with the applicability of XBRL mandate for the accounting year beginning on or after 1^st April ,2011. The scope of the mandate, though, has not been increased but companies who were required to file in the year 2010-11 were also mandated to file their annual financial statements in the year 2011-12.

As per the data reported by the Ministry of Corporate Affairs, around 29,039 and 25,786 companies have filed their annual financial statements using XBRL format.

Ministry’s views on XBRL filings

"The Ministry has decided to analyse the data uploaded on MCA 21 portal by companies about unpaid and unclaimed amounts of money lying with such companies," Corporate Affairs Minister Sh. Sachin Pilot had said in a written reply to the Lok Sabha. [Source: Economic Times dt. 26^th April, 2013]

Ministry of Corporate Affairs is scrutinizing the financial information filed with them. The XBRL Regulatory Tool was employed for conducting technical scrutiny on XBRL filings made by companies. Three or more alerts were generated for 738 companies, which have been referred to RD/ROC for examination. [Source: MCA Monthly Newsletter May 2012].

Ministry has also brought a General Circular 33/2012 dated 16^th October, 2012 in which the Ministry has mentioned several instances of incorrect and misleading XBRL filings. It had been further mentioned that such XBRL filings are inaccurate and do not adequately represent true and fair view of the state of affairs of the company as per section 211 of the Companies Act, 1956. Such XBRL filings apart from being misleading, also dilute the effectiveness of XBRL for stakeholders’ usage relating to the companies. Such lapses defeat the very purpose of introducing XBRL filings which are meant to elicit more detailed and refined information as to the affairs of companies. Please note that XBRL filings are being minutely scrutinized to see if similar mistakes also appear in a larger sample.

It may clearly be concluded that Ministry is concerned with the usage of data filed with them and accordingly, impressing upon the quality of XBRL filings.

How quality can be improved ?

1. Study of taxonomy and business rules is a must

One of the myth which has recently been heard is that the XBRL is just software enabled technique and nothing technical. Here, it must be clarified that, yes, XBRL software is required for XBRL conversion and filing but it is the knowledge of taxonomy and business rules which is pre-requisite for starting with XBRL conversion.

Just like in TDS return filing, a software is required for preparation and filing of TDS returns but without knowing the provisions of TDS, it is not possible to file the return accurately.

Thus, professionals should refer the taxonomy, business rules, filing manual and FAQs for XBRL conversions, as issued by the Ministry of Corporate Affairs, before starting the XBRL conversion for being properly conversant with the process of XBRL.

Certain basics about the C&I taxonomy and business rules are being explained below which shall definitely be of great help for the professionals engaged in XBRL conversions and filings. Lets have a look.

C&I Taxonomy

C&I Taxonomy stands for the Commercial & Industrial Taxonomy. This taxonomy, being general purpose taxonomy, is based on the format of the financial statements and the Accounting Standards. It also includes MCA specific regulatory elements and a few common reporting elements to the extent they are not contrary to the accounting framework. Common reporting elements are also included in the taxonomy to make it more comprehensive, considering the fact that the taxonomy is not extendible for MCA filings i.e. filer cannot create an element in the taxonomy as per their specific requirements.

With the introduction of the new presentation format of Financial Statements under the Companies Act, 1956 viz. Revised Schedule VI, the C&I taxonomy which was based on the erstwhile Schedule VI has undergone a major change and the revised C&I taxonomy 2012 was developed to keep it aligned with the new presentation format. In view of the taxonomy being prepared afresh, architecture of the taxonomy was also considered for a change to the latest IFRS Taxonomy Architecture 2011 as against earlier architecture viz. IFRS Taxonomy Architecture 2006.

The C&I taxonomy comprises following two types of elements.

o   The “in-gaap” elements - These refer to the requirements of the Revised Schedule VI to the Companies Act, 1956, Accounting Standards and the Guidance Notes;

o   The “in-ca” elements - These refer to the regulatory requirements of the Ministry of Corporate Affairs (MCA). 

For viewing the C&I taxonomy in a tree structure and finding any appropriate element in the taxonomy using a sophisticated search engine, professional may also visit at the link “http://bigfoot.corefiling.com/yeti/resources/yeti-gwt/Yeti.jsp” and select the Indian GAAP (MCA) Taxonomy 2012.

Business Rules

Business Rules are built as validation checks in the “Validation Tool” released by the MCA. The Business Rules are mainly categorized as follows:

1. Specific Rules: All the elements are listed in the sheet and any rule if applicable on any element is mentioned against the element. For instance, “Reserves and Surplus” appearing on the face of Balance Sheet is a mandatory element. Thus a filer has to enter a value against this element.

The following broad rules are made in this category:

            a) This is a mandatory field- It means the value against the element have to be tagged. In case, the company does not have such element in its Financial Statements, it need to fill “0” (in case of monetary element) or N.A. (in case of text element) against those elements.

            b) Should be greater than or equal to zero- It does not mean that the element is mandatory to be entered. It means that in case the value is entered, it cannot be a negative value.

            c) The detailed table is mandatory in case “Yes” is selected for any corresponding element- It means that in case any element for eg. “Whether CARO is applicable” is tagged as Yes, the CARO Report has to be tagged in detail in the tabular format. Similar is the case with “Related Party Transactions”, etc.

2. Generic Rules: These are the general business rules to be complied with while creating the instance documents (XBRL financial statements). These are not element specific. For eg. there is one generic rule which states that “It should be mandatory to enter atleast one child element if parent element is entered and vice-a-versa”. It implies that this rule has to be followed throughout the complete tagging process.

3. Applicable ELR (Extended Link Role): This sheet explains the applicability of all ELRs to the applicable instance documents viz. ELR [200100] Notes - Share capital is applicable to the instance document of “Balance Sheet” only and ELR [100200] Statement of profit and loss is applicable to the instance document of “Profit and Loss” only. In case of certain ELRs, applicable instance document is not mentioned. Thus, such ELRs may be tagged in both the instance documents viz. Balance Sheet and Profit & Loss.

4. Mandatory line items: This sheet enlists the line items which are mandatory only in case the applicable dimension table is used. For eg. in case filer uses “Details Of Noncurrent Investments Table”, the following line items under this table would become mandatory for the members:

a. Type Of Noncurrent Investments

b. Class Of Noncurrent Investments

c. Noncurrent Investments

d. Name Of Body Corporate In Whom Investment Has Been Made

5. Exempt Parent and Child members- Dimensions: There is a generic business rule which states that “parent member of an axis shall be mandatory to enter in case value has been entered in any of its child members and vice versa”. This sheet enlists the exemption from the stated generic business rule. And on similar footings, there is one sheet “Parent child exempt-calculation” for the line items/ elements which are not covered under dimensions.

All the Business Rules must be complied with while creating the valid instance documents in order to file with the MCA. Only valid instance documents would get validated through the Validation Tool of the MCA. After the successful validation, filer needs to pre-scrutinize the instance documents through the same validation tool wherein the data is validated online from the information available on the MCA portal viz. CIN, Membership number of auditor, director details, etc.

1. Careful scrutiny of the XBRL documents

After the conversion of financial statements into XBRL documents, these needs to be reviewed thoroughly to ensure the completeness and accuracy of the XBRL documents vis-à-vis audited financial statements.

Filers may convert the XBRL documents into pdf files using the MCA Validation Tool.

Some instances requiring attention

1. Generally, the business rules mandate the filling of detailed breakup of all elements. However, in some instances, it has not been mandated like in case of the element “Cost Of Materials Consumed”.

As per the business rules, the element “Cost Of Materials Consumed” is a mandatory element on the face of Statement of Profit & Loss.

Now, in such case, filer should have the thorough understanding of the taxonomy and should be able to locate the elements and accordingly, give the detailed break-up as the same is required by the Revised Schedule VI to the Companies Act, 1956. Similar is the case with the element “Purchases Of Stock In Trade”.

1. Footnotes should be used in such a comprehensive manner that there may not be any difference between XBRL documents and financial statements. For example, whenever any information is aggregated for tagging purposes, the detailed breakup should be given in the footnotes. For instance, where certain elements are being clubbed and tagged into “others”, footnote must show the detailed break-up of the amount appearing in the element “others”.

Certification of XBRL Financial Statements

The XBRL Financial Statements were required to be certified by a practicing professional viz. CA/CS/CMA vide General Circular No: 57/2011 issued by the MCA on 28th July, 2011. Practicing Professional needs to ensure the correctness, completeness and accuracy of the XBRL Financials vis-a-vis the financial statements which had been adopted at the Annual General Meeting of the company.

The certification language has been reproduced below:

“It is hereby certified that I have verified the above particulars (including attachment(s)) from the audited financial statements of the Company and that all required attachment(s) have been completely attached to this form. It is further certified that the attached XBRL document(s) fairly present, in all material respects, the audited financial statements of the company, in accordance with the XBRL taxonomy as notified under Companies (Filing of documents and forms in eXtensible Business Reporting Language) Rules, 2011.

It is confirmed that the attached XBRL document(s) are the XBRL converted copy(s) of the duly signed Balance Sheet and all other documents which are required to be annexed or attached to the Balance Sheet as required under Section 220 of the Companies Act, 1956.”

Practitioner may refer “Guidance Note on Certification of XBRL Financial Statements” issued by the Institute of Chartered Accountants of India for the better understanding of the task of certification and to ensure a correct certification.

Conclusion

Now, the focus of the Ministry of Corporate Affairs is more on the quality aspects of the XBRL Financial Statements. And the quality can only be achieved with the thorough study of the taxonomy and the corresponding Business Rules. Furthermore, while certifying XBRL documents, professionals may draw guidance from the “Guidance Note on Certification of XBRL Financial Statements” so as to ensure the correctness, completeness and accuracy of the XBRL financial statements.

Careful study of the taxonomy and business rules will, besides ensuring quality, open up a new and emerging area of service for our professionals as many developed countries like US and UK have already adopted XBRL in one way or the other and many European countries are also working on XBRL implementation in their respective countries.

Author:

CA. Vivek Baid 

(The author is a member of the ICAI and ICSI. He can be reached at cavivekbaid@gmail.com

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Last date for filing financial statements in XBRL mode extended

Last date for filing financial statements in XBRL mode extended to 28-2-2013
Filing of Balance Sheet and Profit and Loss Account in extensible Business Reporting Language (XBRL) mode for the financial year commencing on or after 1-4-2011...Read More

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What is XBRL?

1. What  is  XBRL? 

XBRL is a language for the electronic communication of business and financial data which is revolutionizing business reporting around the world. It provides major benefits in the preparation, analysis and communication of business information. It offers cost savings, greater efficiency and improved accuracy and reliability to all those involved in supplying or using financial data. XBRL stands for eXtensible Business Reporting Language. It is already being put to practical use in a number  of countries and implementations of XBRL are growing rapidly around the world. 

2. Who  developed  XBRL? 

XBRL is an open, royalty-free software specification developed through a process of collaboration between accountants and technologists from all over the world. Together, they formed XBRL International which is now   made up of over 650 members, which includes global companies, accounting, technology, government and financial services bodies. XBRL is and will remain an open specification based on XML that is being incorporated into many accounting and analytical software tools and applications. 

3. What  are  the  advantages  of  XBRL? 

XBRL offers major benefits at all stages of business reporting and analysis. The benefits are seen in automation, cost saving, faster, more reliable and more accurate handling of data, improved analysis and in better quality of information and decision- making. XBRL enables producers and consumers of financial data to switch resources away from costly manual processes, typically involving time-consuming comparison, assembly and re-entry of data. They are able to concentrate effort on analysis, aided by software which can validate and process XBRL information. XBRL is a flexible language, which is intended to support all current aspects of reporting in different countries and industries. Its extensible nature means that it can be adjusted to meet 

particular business requirements, even at the individual organization level. 

4. Who  can  benefit  from  using  XBRL? 

All types of organizations can use XBRL to save costs and improve efficiency in handling business and financial information.   Because XBRL is extensible and flexible, it can be adapted to a wide variety of different requirements.   All participants in the financial information supply chain can benefit, whether they are preparers, transmitters or users of business data. 

5. What  is  the  future  of  XBRL? 

XBRL is set to become the standard way of recording, storing and transmitting business financial information.   It is capable of use throughout the world, whatever the language of the country concerned, for a wide variety of business purposes.   It will deliver major cost savings and gains in efficiency, improving processes in companies, governments and other organisations. 

6. Does  XBRL  benefit  the  comparability  of  financial  statements? 

XBRL benefits comparability by helping to identify data which is genuinely alike and distinguishing  information  which  is  not  comparable.  Computers  can  process  this information and populate both pre defined and customised reports. 

7. Does  XBRL  cause  a  change  in  accounting  standards? 

No. XBRL is simply a language for information. It must accurately reflect data reported under different standards - it does not change them. 

8. What  are  the  benefits  to  a  company  from  putting  its  financial  statements  into XBRL? 

XBRL increases the usability of financial statement information.   The need to re-key financial data for analytical and other purposes can be eliminated.   By presenting its statements in XBRL, a company can benefit investors and other stakeholders and enhance its profile.   It will also meet the requirements of regulators, lenders and others consumers  of  financial  information,  who  are  increasingly  demanding  reporting  in XBRL.  This will improve business relations and lead to a range of benefits. With full adoption of XBRL, companies can automate data collection. For example, data  from  different  company  divisions  with  different  accounting  systems  can  be assembled quickly, cheaply and efficiently.   Once data is gathered in XBRL, different types of reports using varying subsets of the data can be produced with minimum effort.   A company finance division, for example, could quickly and reliably generate internal  management  reports,  financial  statements  for  publication,  tax  and  other regulatory filings, as well as credit reports for lenders.   Not only can data handling be automated,  removing  time-consuming,  error-prone  processes,  but  the  data  can  be checked by software for accuracy. 

9. How  does  XBRL  work? 

XBRL makes the data readable, with the help of two documents - Taxonomy and instance document. Taxonomy defines the elements and their relationships based on the regulatory requirements. Using the taxonomy prescribed by the regulators, companies need to map their reports, and generate a valid XBRL instance document. The process of  mapping  means  matching  the  concepts  as  reported  by  the  company  to  the corresponding element in the taxonomy. In addition to assigning XBRL tag from taxonomy, information like unit of measurement, period of data, scale of reporting etc., needs to be included in the instance document. 

10. How  do  companies  create  statements  in  XBRL? 

There are a number of ways to create financial statements in XBRL: 

 XBRL-aware accounting software products are becoming available which will support the export of data in XBRL form. These tools allow users to map charts of accounts and other structures to XBRL tags. 

     Statements can be mapped into XBRL using XBRL software tools designed for this purpose 

 Data from accounting databases can be extracted in XBRL format.   It is not strictly necessary for an accounting software vendor to use XBRL; third party products can achieve the transformation of the data to XBRL. 

 Applications can transform data in particular formats into XBRL.   The route which an individual company may take    will depend on its requirements and the accounting software and systems it currently uses, among other factors. 

11. Is  India  a  member  of  XBRL  International? 

India is now an established jurisdiction of XBRL International. A separate company, under section 25 has been created, to manage the operations of XBRL India. The main objectives of XBRL India are 

 To create awareness about XBRL in India 

 To develop and maintain Indian Taxonomies 

 To help companies, adopt and implement XBRL. 

For more information, visit www.xbrl.org/in 

12. Which  taxonomies  developed  for  Indian  reporting  requirements?Where  can  I find  the  taxonomies? 

Taxonomies for Indian companies are developed based on the requirements of 

• Schedule VI of Companies Act, 
• Accounting Standards, issued by ICAI 
• SEBI Listing requirements. 

 Taxonomies  for  Manufacturing  and  service  sector  (referred  as  Commercial  and Industrial, or C&I) and Banking sector, is acknowledged by XBRL International. These taxonomies are available at http://www.xbrl.org/in/ 

13. Where  can  I  find  more  information  about  XBRL? 

Please visit www.xbrl.org. Also Ministry of Corporate Affairs would be shortly 

developing its webpage on XBRL with list of contact persons for training purposes. 

14. What are XBRL Documents? 

An XBRL document comprises the taxonomy and the instance document. Taxonomy contains description and classification of business & financial terms, while the instance document is made up of the actual facts and figures. Taxonomy and Instance document together make up the XBRL documents. 

15. What  is  Taxonomy? 

Taxonomy  can  be  referred  as  an  electronic  dictionary  of  the  reporting  concepts. Taxonomy consists of all the data definitions, the basic XBRL properties and the interrelationships amongst the concepts. It includes terms such as net income, EPS, cash, etc. Each term has specific attributes that help define it, including label and definition and potentially references. Taxonomies may represent hundreds or even thousands of individual business reporting concepts, mathematical and definitional relationships among them, along with text labels in multiple languages, references to authoritative literature, and information about how to display each concept to a user. 

16. What  is  meant  by  extending  taxonomy? 

Taxonomy is extended to accommodate items/relationship specific to the owner of the information. Taxonomy extension therefore can be 

a)  Modification in the existing relationships 

b)  Addition of new elements in the taxonomy 

c)  Combination both a & b 

17. Are  Taxonomies  based  on  any  standards? 

Yes, taxonomies are based on the regulatory requirements and standards which are to be followed by the companies.   Accordingly, depending on the requirements of every country, there can be country-specific taxonomies. 

18. What  is  an  Instance  document? 

An XBRL instance document is a business report in an electronic format created according to the rules of XBRL. It contains facts that are defined by the elements in the taxonomy it refers to, together with their values and an explanation of the context in which they are placed. XBRL Instances contain the reported data with their values and “contexts”. Instance document must be linked to at least one taxonomy, which defines the contexts, labels or references. 

Thus, in order to concluded the usage and explain the XBRL technology 

which leads to more information exchanges that can be effectively automated by use. This one standard approach leads to the best interest of the company or more so for the international business interests globally that warrant the accuracy of all the financial data for the end users and early collaborative decisions by the companies or those whose interst is involved for acquisition/ rights etc.  


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Filing Financial Statements in XBRL mode without any additional fee

As per Circular No. 57/2011, a company is allowed to file the financial statements in XBRL mode without any additional fee up to 30th November, 2011 or within 60 days from the due date, whichever is later.

In case of a company whose financial year is ending on 31-03-2011 and if its date of AGM is 30TH SEPTEMBER 2011, then its Due date for filing financial statements is 30 days from the AGM date i.e. upto 30th October, 2011. Hence, as per the time lines provided in the circular, THE COMPANY CAN FILE ITS FINANCIAL STATEMENTS IN XBRL MODE WITHOUT ADDITIONAL FEES UPTO 30TH NOVEMBER, 2011 OR 60 DAYS FROM ITS DUE DATE OF FILING, WHICH IS…… 29TH DECEMBER, 2011….. (I.E. 60 DAYS FROM DUE DATE OF FILING- 30TH OCTOBER, 2011) WHICHEVER IS LATER
Similarly, In case of a company whose financial year is ending on 30-06-2011 and if its date of AGM is 31st December 2011, then its Due date for filing financial statements would be 30 days from the AGM date i.e. upto 30th January, 2012. Hence, the company can file its financial statements in XBRL mode without additional fees upto 60 days from its due date of filing, which is 30th March, 2012.

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Last Date for Filing Financial Statements in XBRL Format - (11-11-2011)

LAST DATE FOR FILING FINANCIAL STATEMENTS IN XBRL FORMAT

Last date for filling of financial statements in XBRL formats in respect of specified companies is approaching (30th November 2011 or 60 days from the due date of filing, whichever is later). You are all advised to ensure the filings of your client companies by the due date.

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Introduction to XBRL-Efiling of Balance sheet in XBRL Format

XBRL (Extensible Business Reporting Language) is another advanced reporting language of the XML family. XBRL ensures that the figures reported to government authorities and other organisation does not remain dormant piece of printed papers but these figures can be used in data analysis.

ICAI took initiative in 2001 for implementation of XBRL as a first step towards Digital data Reporting. Knowing the fact that it would take some time before it gets approval from the ministry. It took 10 yrs for the ministry of corporate affairs to release mandate for filing of annual accounts in XBRL format.

Though this fact must be iterated that the Reserve bank of India has already started this reporting method for the Indian banks reporting , but nonetheless it was at very miniscule level.

What is MCA Mandate?

The companies whose Balance Sheet date is 31.03.2011 or onwards, need to file their financial statements in XBRL provided they qualify the criteria laid as per Ministry’s general Circular 37/2011dated 07.06.2011.The following class of companies have to file the Financial Statements in XBRL Form from the year 2010-2011:-

1) 1) All companies listed in India and their subsidiaries (Subsidiary of listed company are required to file in XBRL format, irrespective of its paid up capital)

(Note : If A ltd is Listed Company , B (P) Ltd is A’s Subsidiary and C (P) Ltd is B’s Subsidiary, then as per FAQ by MCA all three i.e. A Ltd , B (P) Ltd & C (P) Ltd have to file in XBRL Format only)

2) All companies having a paid up capital of Rs. 5 Crore and above or a Turnover of Rs. 100 crores or above. I.e. about 28,000 companies have to file in XBRL format.

There shall be a separate set of Form 23AC (Form for filing Balance Sheet and other documents with the Registrar) and Form 23ACA (Form for  filing Profit & Loss Account and other documents with Registrar) available on the MCA portal for filing in XBRL form. Existing Form 23AC and 23ACA shall continue to be there for filing by companies to which XBRL filing is not applicable; and for filing of earlier year’s
documents.

Theoretical Aspects of XBRL – To be known before Filing

XBRL can be broadly understood in two separate aspects:

· Taxonomy
· Instance Document

Taxonomy : In Simplest of words possible, I can define taxonomy as dictionary of accounting elements. These taxonomy is ideal set of elements available with the ministry against which the data of the filer has to be tagged. Revised Taxonomy as released by MCA contains precisely 3,174 elements.

Tagging mechanism will be a process in which the data on physical financial documents will be converted as per available taxonomy. For the purpose of this tagging, XBRL softwares are available in the market . Details can also be obtained from XBRL portal of MCA.

(Note : Taxonomy as released by MCA as of today is compliant with Indian AS and Existing Schedule VI to Companies Act , 1956 . As and when IND – AS and Revised Schedule VI comes applicable , the same will be revised and hosted on MCA Portal )

Instance Document: Once the tagging process is complete, the document that will be generated will be a machine readable XBRL document, this document is called as Instance Document.


MCA Taxonomy

MCA Taxonomy contains majorly the following Parts :

· Elements and their characteristics like the nature of field (text, numeric etc ) , the nature of their balances, period type etc . In totality there are 3,174 elements.

· Extended Link Base – Extended link base are further groupings of elements and are in totality 57 in number.

· Presentation Link Base – Detailing of Extended Link Base.

· Calculations

· Labels

Mapping Process – A Lucid step by Step process

Step 1
Map or tag the company’s financial statements to the published taxonomy. This can be done by following methods.

· Certain ERP systems may have inbuilt feature to tag the financials to the published taxonomy of MCA

· XBRL Softwares.

Detailed list of software vendors can be obtained from http://www.mca.gov.in/XBRL.
It must be noted that MCA does not recommends/associates with these vendors. It has been hosted just for public Convenience.
This is by far the most important and technical step of the process and nearly constitutes 70 – 80% of filing process. The Correctness of this mapping must be reviewed. Errors that creep in must be removed by professional judgement.

Step 2
Based on the Mapping above, create a instance document.

Separate Instance document must be created for :

· Standalone Balance sheet
· Standalone profit and loss account
· Consolidated Balance sheet
· Consolidated Profit and Loss Account
Step 3
Validate the created instance document.

The Validation tool of MCA will be shortly available on the MCA portal. This tool is to be downloaded.
Just as FVU validation or others, the instance document created should be validated from this validation tool.

Checks performed by this validation tool are as below :

· Correct version of taxonomy used ?
· Taxonomy elements fully recuperated ?
· Compliance with Business Rules ?
· Vis a Vis MCA – 21 Database ?

A Secure key lock will be put on Instance Document once the Validation is done correctly.

Step 4
File the Instance Document.

Instance document created and validated as above shall be attached to Form 23AC anc Form 23ACA (Seperate class of XBRL forms will be hosted by MCA for XBRL purpose).

Note
Instance Document is not required to be digitally signed. Only E-form 23AC and 23ACA are required to be signed by practicing professional.

For any other Query/Opinion:
Contact : xbrl.technical@mca.gov.in
This Article has been written by CA.Ankit Jain he can be contacted at:Ankitgulgulia@icai.org
source:http://www.caclubindia.com/articles/a-practical-insight-to-xbrl-efiling--11232.asp

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