CFOs Avoiding System To Make It Easier To Spot Accounting Problems
Reuters about XBRL, the business reporting language that was supposed to make it easier for computerized systems to run through financial filings and spot questionable data.
The technology, a computer language developed by accountants, turns financial information into the equivalent of a bar code, allowing software to scan and comprehend information that would otherwise be left for armies of analysts to re-type and sort out.
The article notes that XBRL has been around for a while, but is not widely adopted by the industry.
And Techdirt is right on target:
Is that really a surprise? The benefit of this technology is that it lets the government spot problems on your corporate filings. Even companies that believe their filings are perfectly legit are going to think twice before making it even easier for a computer to flag their filings for a detailed review.
Transparency is not of much business value, it’s the way it is … and it ain’t exactly a pathology, in Accouting being “closed” is a virtue … hence, warranting change is not easy, Techdirt notes:
If the government really wants this technology to take off, they need to either mandate it by law, or, at the very least, come up with a better marketing program that shows how it benefits companies, rather than making them more susceptible to a tax audit.
