Center Formed to Address XBRL Data Quality Concerns

NEW YORK, June 25, 2015 /PRNewswire/ -- XBRL US and an alliance of five companies – Merrill Corporation, RDG Filings, RR Donnelley, Vintage, a Division of PR Newswire, and Workiva Inc. – today announced the joint formation of the XBRL US Center for Data Quality to improve the utility of XBRL financial data filed with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). 

"To realize the full economic benefit of XBRL, investors and other consumers must have access to accurate and reliable XBRL data," said Barry Melancon, CEO of the American Institute of CPAs, and Chair of the XBRL US Board of Directors. "This industry-funded initiative will make it substantially easier for companies to create consistent, good quality financial statements in XBRL format."

The Center for Data Quality will channel support and action through the XBRL US Data Quality Committee to address the public's concerns about XBRL financial data being reported to the SEC. XBRL is a global standard for digitally exchanging business information that facilitates understanding and oversight of corporate performance.

"I am encouraged that this market-driven initiative will answer questions about the quality and usability of XBRL data," said Harvey Pitt, former SEC chairman. "The SEC's mission to protect investors is enhanced by accurate and verifiable data that can be readily searched and understood."

The Data Quality Committee plans to develop:

• Guidance to provide for uniform, consistent tagging of financial data and to clarify those specific circumstances where custom tags are appropriate.
• Automated validation rules to verify compliance with the Committee's guidance and prevent or detect tagging errors.

The Committee's validation rules will be contributed to the Arelle open source XBRL platform and will be freely available for use by XBRL software providers, public companies and others.

Committee meetings will be open to the public, and the proposed guidance and validation rules will be released for public comment before they are approved for final publication. In addition, the Committee will schedule periodic meetings to update the SEC staff on its progress. For more information on the Center for Data Quality and the Committee's activities visit http://xbrl.us/data-quality/. In addition to representatives from the founding members of the Center for Data Quality, the Committee includes representatives from Bloomberg, Credit Suisse HOLT, Calcbench, CFA Institute, S&P Capital IQ, Vanderbilt University and the American Institute of CPAs.

The Financial Accounting Standards Board (FASB) will also be involved in the Committee as an observer. Louis Matherne, Chief of Taxonomy Development at FASB, said, "We are pleased to be part of this initiative, which will give the FASB insight into data quality concerns that will help us improve the U.S. GAAP Financial Reporting Taxonomy."

About XBRL US

XBRL US is the non-profit consortium for XBRL business reporting standards in the U.S. and it represents the business information supply chain. Its mission is to support the implementation of XBRL business reporting standards through the development of taxonomies for use by U.S. public and private sectors, with a goal of interoperability between sectors, and by promoting XBRL adoption through marketplace collaboration. XBRL US has developed taxonomies for U.S. GAAP, credit rating and mutual fund reporting under contract with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission and has developed a taxonomy for corporate actions. For more information, go to http://xbrl.us.

SOURCE XBRL US Center for Data Quality

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