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| What’s new at IRIS |
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| MCA’s XBRL filing platform launched, IRIS first to file |
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| Mumbai, October 10, 2011
History was made as the clock struck midnight on Friday, October 8, 2011 when Mumbai based IRIS Business Services Limited became India’s first company to file its annual returns with the Ministry of Corporate Affairs in XBRL.
As the company’s filing went through, it marked the launch of the next information revolution in India. It was a giant leap for India’s Ministry of Corporate Affairs, who have been working to strengthen the disclosure framework to bring Indian reporting systems on par with best practices from around the world. With the launch of the XBRL filing platform, India joined the ranks of leading countries who have embraced XBRL to improve disclosure standards and improve corporate governance.
XBRL or eXtensible Business reporting language is the next generation language for business reporting that is beginning to be used all over the world. In India, XBRL has been embraced earlier by the two leading stock exchanges, namely, the Bombay Stock exchange and the National Stock Exchange, by the capital markets regulator, the Securities Exchange Board of India and by the central bank, the Reserve Bank of India.
“Having been at the forefront of XBRL rollout in India, we are delighted that we were the first to file on the MCA portal,” says S. Swaminathan, Chief Executive, IRIS and India’s most well known XBRL evangelist. “After all, all the implementations, be they at BSE or NSE or SEBI or RBI are ours. The taxonomy too had been developed by us for the Institute of Chartered Accountants. While the MCA platform has been developed by TCS, we were always available to them for any inputs they required,” he added. “Many of India’s biggest industry groups have turned to us to meet their XBRL needs,” he said.
According to the MCA circular, all listed companies and their subsidiaries, all firms with a turnover in excess of Rs 100 crore or those with a paid up capital of over Rs 5 crore are required to file in XBRL. It is expected that over 31000 companies would have to file in XBRL. The ministry has also made it clear that the ruling will be extended to all companies from next year, based on the experience of this year. That will cover the approximately 9 lakh companies in India.
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| Infosys partners with IRIS to deliver a platform for simplified and standardized reporting |
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| Bangalore, London, New York – March 3, 2011: News Highlights
Finacle™ the universal banking solution from Infosys Technologies, and IRIS Business Services, a worldwide leader in XBRL (Extensible Business Reporting Language) tools and solutions announced a strategic partnership to provide banks with the IRIS XBRL suite, enabling financial reporting process automation in compliance with XBRL standards.
The IRIS XBRL suite will support the regulator’s drive towards financial transparency and standardisation of reporting for ease of peer comparison, while also lowering costs of report and data consolidation.
Templates can be modified and altered in accordance with regulatory mandates, to bring in adaptability and flexibility of financial reporting for banks.
XBRL standards significantly decrease time-to-file for regulatory financial reporting in addition to facilitating automatic checks of data accuracy.
A bank using the IRIS XBRL suite saves more than 60% of the present manual effort, involved in preparing and filing regulatory financial reports per quarter.
Enhanced reporting efficiencies and greater data accuracy, in addition to lower cost of ownership, are benefits accrued from leveraging the IRIS XBRL suite.
Key Quote
Haragopal Mangipudi, Global Head - Finacle, Infosys Technologies, “Extensible Business Reporting Language is a game-changing global standard that will significantly change the way financial information is reported, both internally and externally. CFOs and CIOs have been quick to understand the impact and benefits of XBRL, and plan for its adoption. Finacle is pleased to announce this strategic partnership with IRIS to provide the IRIS XBRL tool to our global clients.”
IRIS CEO, S. Swaminathan: “By leveraging Finacle’s technology leadership and global reach, we will accelerate the adoption of XBRL compliant reporting in the banking world through the deployment of the IRIS XBRL suite which will make it that much easier for banks to embrace XBRL internally. We are also delighted that Infosys has chosen to partner with us.
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| UK HMRC patronizes the adoption of Inline XBRL |
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In 2006, HMRC recommended that the Government should set a goal for HMRC that it should aim for universal electronic delivery of business tax returns by 2012. This included the submission of PAYE, VAT and Corporation Tax (CT).
The use of XBRL for HMRC solves only half of the issue as it is understood only by computers and it is still not possible for users to read the document without having to interpret the XBRL tags. Inline XBRL (or iXBRL) resolves the second half of the problem. It is a hybrid that combines the XBRL data tags with HTML formatting and makes it possible to view an accurate reproduction of the accounts in a web browser. |
| iXBRL may sound new and complicated, but taken in context iXBRL is simply a viewable document which is not very different from a PDF. The main difference is that unlike the files in traditional formats, the users can view it in the browser rather than dedicated application softwares. In addition to the user friendly viewing, iXBRL facilitates automated consumption of the financial information. |
| iXBRL is a standard developed that helps to retain formatting of the documents being submitted, simultaneously morphing it into machine readable XBRL data. To achieve this, certain elements of the tax computation and the accounts documents will need to be tagged. |
| IRIS Proton is a state-of-art offering from IRIS that creates interactive eXtensible Business Reporting Language (XBRL) from unstructured, semi-structured and structured data in the form of html files, pdf and word as input. With its unique concept of embedded tagging, Proton enables creation of Inline XBRL Documents in parallel with XBRL instance documents and taxonomies. IRIS also has a built in XBRL validator used for validating the XBRL documents. This validator can be geared for use in validating the iXBRL documents. |
| IRIS Business Services has a pool of expertise in iXBRL standard .It has a proper mix of the team consisting of experts from accountancy as well as technology. Along with partners in UK, Proton is being leveraged by IRIS to offer back-end conversion services to companies who are filing with the HMRC following the iXBRL mandate in UK. |
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Subhkam Ventures invests in IRIS... |
| Subhkam Ventures, a SEBI registered VCF, has made investment in IRIS Business Services Limited. Subhkam Ventures is one of the earliest home grown Private Equity firms of India and is among the few with full investment cycle track record in India. Subhkam Ventures has been investing in Private Equity and PIPEs for over the past ten years. Subhkam has invested in over 25 companies (both private equity and PIPES) and successfully exited 7 over a period of time. Mr. Rakesh S Kathotia, Chairman, Subhkam Ventures said , “with the government agencies and large conglomerates turning towards XBRL as a common platform for assimilation of data, IRIS is poised to make a quantum jump in their business and they are at the cusp of exponential growth, especially when regulators world-wide are mandatorily adopting XRBL. We feel IRIS, with its inherent strengths, shall certainly garner a sizable chunk of potential markets, which runs into billions”. The investment is made through Subhkam Growth fund I, via two rounds of capital infusion. While the first tranche will give Subhkam Growth Fund around 15% holding, the second tranche in the form of a performance linked convertible structure would create an enhanced stake for the fund. |
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| State Government of Nevada releases white paper envisioning XBRL for applications beyond financial reporting |
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| June 24, 2009
"XBRL can greatly reduce the pain of doing business with the State," says Kim Wallin, State Controller of Nevada, and author of a white paper on using XBRL for state wide business reporting.
Wallin, the first CPA and the first CMA to be elected to the Office of State Controller in 50 years, recognized as one of the 100 most influential people in accounting in the country in 2003, and the "Woman CPA of the Year" in 2006, is a firm believer in ushering in transparency and efficiency in business through leveraging technology. |
| In a white paper co-authored with Liv Watson, Vice Chair, XBRL International and Shweta Gupta of IRIS Business Services, Wallin outlines how XBRL can achieve a long envisioned objective of providing an integrated platform across various agencies within a state government, and thereby simplifying the costs of doing business. |
| "Currently, new businesses need to go to the Secretary of State, then to the Department of Taxation, then Unemployment, DMV to register vehicles, city, county, etc., to obtain all the permits, licenses and so on to do business in the state," she says. "And every place you go, you have to fill out a form with your name, address, ID number -- basically the same information at each location. If you use XBRL in a business portal, you would fill out name, address, ID number, etc. and then the data can go out and populate the other systems. If you do it without the XBRL, systems don't talk to one another." |
| The whitepaper looks at creating a common business portal, which allows various agencies to share the same information and seamlessly integrate them with their proprietary systems, by leveraging the XBRL framework. |
| "The concept sounds more daunting than it actually is, since XBRL can enable agencies to receive and process information without overhauling any existing systems," says Swaminathan, CEO, IRIS Business Services. "Our XBRL enabled workflow solution has been deployed in India to work simultaneously with the two leading stock exchanges, allowing companies have to file information only once. Both exchanges had their own proprietary systems and information structures, but the common taxonomy and the XBRL data could be mapped to both easily. It is the same concept we are applying here," he adds. |
| "Once the taxonomy is created, it can be approved by the XBRL International Consortium and can be adopted as a standard by other States as well," says Liv Watson, Vice Chair, XBRL International. "This would extend the use and facilitate easier exchange of information across states." |
| Nevada State Controller Kim Wallin has been wrestling with the problems of internal financial reporting, grants management and tracking and making sense of financial information since she took office. As a member of the XBRL International Public Sector Working Group, she was able to recognize and apply XBRL to various areas of the State government reporting, including grants reporting and debt collection. |
| "I am convinced that XBRL would be an excellent enhancement for a statewide reporting initiative, and we have outlined a practical approach in this paper," she says. |
| IRIS is implementing a pilot with the State Controller’s Office, to use XBRL for debt collection management system. This is expected to significantly enhance efficiencies in the debt collection process at the State by reducing the need to use 100s of spreadsheets to track the debt. |
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Over 200 companies` financial results have discrepancies: Myiris.com Study |
| 14 May,2009 More than 200 listed Indian companies have discrepancies in their annual audited financial results. Some of the errors are serious, like for this company whose reserves in the balance sheet show a whopping Rs 2.16 billion discrepancy.
These findings have been thrown up in a study of the financials of the past 5 years of more than 1400 listed Indian companies. The research project was carried out by the analysts at myiris.com, India`s leading financial portal, as a service to investors. The study, which is being carried out in phases, has so far covered only companies in manufacturing and services. Banks and financial services companies will be covered in the next round. |
| ``For all of the companies, one or more of the numbers simply do not add up. If you add up the numbers in the schedules under one head, this computed value should tally with the total reported for the corresponding item in the main balance sheet or the P&L statement as the case may be. We find that for these 209 companies, they don`t add up,`` explains S. Swaminathan, Founder & CEO of myiris.com, whose analysts carried out the research project. |
| ``It does not matter whether the quantum of discrepancies are material. The very fact that there are discrepancies is a serious enough matter warranting further examination to prevent such occurrences in the future,`` Swaminathan elaborates. ``We will pass on the findings of the study to the Ministry of Corporate Affairs, SEBI, and the stock exchanges,`` he said while refusing to disclose the names of the companies to the public ``as it might have unintended consequences.`` |
| Swaminathan refuses to describe this as fraudulent reporting. ``I would say that the companies and auditors should have paid more attention. But while I agree that there could be the odd case where some companies may have fudged their accounts deliberately, I would not pin the fraud label on all of them,`` he said. ``In fact, we are contacting each company individually to point out the problems to them which they may rectify if they so desire,`` he said, arguing that that would be the constructive way forward. |
| Outlining the approach adopted by his team, Swaminathan said that the errors were discovered in the course of creating India`s first ever corporate fundamentals database in XBRL. ``You convert the entire data set into XBRL and you will see all these red flags immediately``, he added. The project used the taxonomy approved recently by the Institute of Chartered Accountants as a first step towards full fledged adoption of XBRL in India. |
| Swaminathan believed that it would be unfair to simply blame the auditors, as it is the responsibility of company managements to get it right. ``In fact, we wish to compliment the Institute of Chartered Accountants for introducing XBRL in India, that alone would have thrown up every one of these cases of misreporting which the auditors could have then caught and corrected,`` he added. |
| While declining to name the errant companies, Swaminathan shared the key findings of the study. According to the findings: |
| >> 60% of the companies are listed on both the NSE and BSE, 1% on the NSE alone and the rest on the BSE alone. |
| >> In terms of sectoral dispersion, the research found that textiles with 27 companies accounted for the most followed by IT (18), Steel (10) and pharmaceuticals (9). |
| >> In terms of geographical dispersion, Maharashtra with 60 companies accounted for the most, followed by Delhi at a distant second with 29 companies. Tamil Nadu (22), Andhra (22) and Gujarat (19) followed. |
| >> 109 companies had errors in the balance sheet, 66 in their cash flow statements while 34 had errors creeping into their Profit & Loss Statements. |
| XBRL, or eXtensible Business Reporting Language, is often described as the barcode of information and has been acknowledged as the harbinger of transparency in financial reporting worldwide. More than 100 countries have adopted XBRL, this includes India. RBI, SEBI and the two stock exchanges are championing the adoption of XBRL in India, with the ICAI providing leadership. |
| All Indian companies with ADRs outstanding have to file with the Securities Exchange Commission of the USA in XBRL starting next year. In fact, Infosys has been part of the voluntary compliance program of the SEC for the last 3 years and Mohandas Pai is a recent addition to the board of XBRL International. |
| ``I must state unequivocally that the purpose of introduction of XBRL is not to catch errant companies. In fact, with XBRL, companies will not make errors in their reporting if they are able to implement XBRL within the organization effectively,`` Swaminathan says. ``I want to tell companies that it improves the accuracy and quality of your own financial information in the marketplace,`` says Liv Watson, Vice Chair of XBRL International, and one of the originators of the XBRL concept, describing the introduction of XBRL as the greatest thing that has happened for investors in a long time. |
| Citing examples from other countries, he pointed out that in Spain, the incremental net NPA of the banking system dropped to less than 1%, contributing to the health of the banking system. |
| **IRIS, the owners of myiris.com, is India`s leading XBRL company. |
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| XBRL International Inc. announces 2009 Steering Committee election results |
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New York, 30 January, 2009 – XBRL International Inc. (XII) announced today that Mike Willis, Partner, PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP, has been ratified as the new Chair of the International Steering Committee (ISC) effective 16 January 2009.
During its January meeting in Miami, Florida, the International Steering Committee also ratified Diane Mueller, Vice President, XBRL Development, JustSystems, as 1st Vice Chair representing Jurisdictions, Liv Watson, Board Member, IRIS India, as 2nd Vice Chair representing At Large members, and Arleen Thomas, Senior VP - AICPA, as Treasurer for the ISC.
In addition, we are pleased to announce the election of 5 new At-Large members to the ISC: David Van den Ende, Deloitte Netherlands, Ralf Frank, DVFA Germany, Josef Macdonald, Ernst & Young UK, Michal Piechocki, BR-AG Poland and Li Wei, CSRC, China. |
| "The organization is quite pleased by the quality of the candidates that were nominated during this election process. With these additions to the International Steering Committee we are poised to address the growing market demands resulting from global XBRL adoption." states CEO Anthony Fragnito. |
| Incoming ISC Chair Mike Willis, "The ISC is excited to address the opportunities and challenges arising from the accelerating market adoption of XBRL around the world. The diversity of the individuals elected is reflective of the growing international presence and enabling process implications provided by the XBRL standard." |
Please refer to www.xbrl.org for a complete listing of the ISC leadership positions. |
| To learn more about XBRL the Standard, plan to attend the 19th XBRL International Conference hosted by XBRL France and XBRL Europe from June 23-25, 2009 in Paris, France. For more information on the conference or if you would like to participate in the program or exhibit your XBRL solutions, go to: http://conference.xbrl.org |
"The organization is quite pleased by the quality of the candidates that were nominated during this election process. With these additions to the International Steering Committee we are poised to address the growing market demands resulting from global XBRL adoption." states CEO Anthony Fragnito. |
About XBRL International, Inc |
| XBRL International is a not-for-profit consortium of approximately 550 companies and agencies worldwide working together to build the XBRL language and promote and support its adoption. The consortium members meet periodically in international conferences, conduct committee work regularly via conference calls, and communicate in email and phone calls throughout the week. |
| This collaborative effort began in 1998 and has produced a variety of specifications and taxonomies to support the goal of providing a standard, XML-based language for digitizing business reports in accordance with the rules of accounting in each country or with other reporting regimes such as banking regulation or performance benchmarking. You can read more about our history, the missions of the working groups that carry out much of the work of the organisation, and the elected steering committee that sets the goals of the consortium. |
| Interested companies and agencies are encouraged to join the XBRL International consortium and participate in building the future of electronic business reporting. |
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XBRL for RBI - A first in India by IRIS |
On October 6, 2008 the Deputy Governor of the Reserve Bank of India, Shri V Leeladhar, launched its XBRL based Electronic Filing System for Basel II reporting by banks. This filing system, which is a deployment of IRIS’ iFile solution for XBRL enabled filing, will be used by banks across India to submit their Return on Capital Adequacy Returns data.
The system is now being extended to facilitate reporting on fortnightly returns on Gaps, Positions, Balances, Assets & Liabilities and Annual Financials Returns. iFile, IRIS’ XBRL enabled workflow solution, is both modular and scalable, and can be rapidly customized and deployed to meet the specific reporting and workflow requirements of various banking regulatory environments. The solution has been adapted to accommodate extensive use of dimensions. |
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| With the adoption of iFile by the Reserve Bank of India, IRIS has established its step in the XBRL space in the banking domain. |
| To know more about XBRL and the services that IRIS has to offer, visit www.irisindia.net/xbrl.php |
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| IRIS creates XBRL taxonomy for the ICAI, exposure draft open for comments |
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The first phase of creating an XBRL taxonomy for India is complete, with IRIS Business Services having submitting the draft general purpose financial reporting XBRL taxonomy for commercial and industrial companies to the ICAI.
This draft taxonomy covers the financial statements, viz., Balance Sheet, Statement of Profit and Loss, and Cash Flow Statement and the related non-financial information. The draft taxonomy has been developed conforming to Indian Accounting Standards and Company Law while adapting the architectural features of the IFRS general purpose taxonomy 2006.
ICAI has invited comments on the draft taxonomy by October 28, 2008. The taxonomy may be viewed at
http://icai.org/post.html?post_id=3424 |
| The Institute of Chartered Accountants of India constituted a Group on XBRL in January 2007, under the chairmanship of the President, ICAI. The main objective of the Group was to establish a forum for the development of XBRL in India including its promotion and to develop taxonomy for XBRL based reporting bearing in mind the peculiarities of the Indian Accounting Standards. As part of this initiative, the ICAI had, earlier this year, awarded IRIS the prestigious contract to create the XBRL taxonomy for India. |
| About IRIS |
| IRIS Business Services is a leading business and financial information and research provider based out of Mumbai (India), and one of the world's largest provider of XBRL based solutions and services. |
| IRIS offers a suite of XBRL enabled software products for XBRL enabled workflow and reporting, XBRL conversion software and services, taxonomy development and training / consulting services. |
| IRIS' XBRL based filing solution has been adopted by the Bombay Stock Exchange and National Stock Exchange, as well as by the Reserve Bank. IRIS has also created the XBRL taxonomy for the Institute of Chartered Accountants of India. |
| Liv Watson, one of the founders of XBRL, has recently joined IRIS on its Board of Directors to take the firm's XBRL offerings global. |
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