Sage Guide To I XBRL
User Manual:
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Page Count: 16
Page 3
Foreword
Page 4
Introducing the Sage Guide to iXBRL
Page 5
Why iXBRL?
What are XBRL and iXBRL?
When will iXBRL be introduced?
Page 6-7
What impact will this have on you,
the accountants?
Page 8
How is Sage software impacted?
What can you do now?
Page 9
Sage XBRL Usability & Design Panel
Page 10-11
Online ling – a brief history
Page 12-13
XBRL and iXBRL – further information
Page 14
Sources
Page 15
Summary
Foreword
Welcome to the second in our exclusive series of
Sage Guides,
aimed at keeping you up to date with
all the latest important industry news and hot topics.
One of the biggest, most exciting challenges we all
face is the continued change in terms of online ling.
With that in mind, Part 2 of our Sage Guides is
dedicated to telling you everything you need to know
about the introduction of iXBRL – why it matters,
how it works and what it means for both you and
your clients.
We hope you’ll nd it a useful summary.
3
Introducing the Sage Guide to iXBRL
With iXBRL becoming more and more talked about, we’d like to take you through
the ‘what’, the ‘why’ and the ‘when’ regarding the new tagging and ling systems for
corporation tax and accounts production software.
This guide gives you a detailed look at the history and an overview of what the future
holds, and includes information about subjects such as IFRS for SMEs.
We’ve been working closely with HM Revenue and Customs (HMRC) as original
members of the HMRC XBRL Tripartite Steering Group – a forum created specically
to discuss the implementation of iXBRL – to ensure that the switchover is as smooth
and efcient for you as possible.
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Why iXBRL?
• Corporation tax returns due after 31 March 2011 must be led online
• HMRC says that th is new online ling mechanism will make ling company tax
returns easier and faster
• HMRC has mandated that the CT600 be in XML* format. Accounts and tax
computations will both be in inline eXtensible Business Reporting Language
(iXBRL) format, and other documents will be led with the CT600 as PDFs
* XML (Extensible Markup Language) is a set of rules for encoding documents electronically.
What are XBRL and iXBRL?
XBRL (eXtensible Business Reporting Language) is a bit like bar coding for nancial
statements, enabling every piece of data to be coded (tagged) with an identity.
It is a universal language that can be adapted to any nation’s accounting standards.
Computers can then read an XBRL report and select specic data, collate it,
analyse it and exchange it with other computers.
Inline XBRL (iXBRL) enables XBRL- tagged data to be embedded within standard
HTML documents – just like a web page – so that you and your clients can read
the accounts as normal. Embedding the XBRL in-line with HTML allows for the
exibility required around the production of the statutory accounts, whilst maintaining
the ability for a computer to read the same data. The iXBRL computation le and
accounts le are attachments (like PDF les) and are submitted alongside the
electronic version of the CT600.
When will iXBRL be introduced?
November 2009 - 31 March 2011: Corporation tax ling can be done on paper or
online with the CT600 as XML, and with other documents as PDFs. Up until 31 March
2011, accountants in practice and industry can choose to submit accounts and tax
computations as PDFs or in iXBRL format.
From 1 April 2011: Corporation tax returns for accounting periods ending after
31 March 2010 and which are led after 31 March 2011 must be led online,
and the submission of tax computations and accounts using iXBRL will become
a compulsory requirement.
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What impact will this have on you,
the accountants?
Existing users of any version of Sage Corporation Tax (powered by Abacus) will
see that the changes to deliver iXBRL ling will be relatively minor to allow the
submission of iXBRL les to HMRC. These changes will be included in your
software upgrade.
If you do not use software for corporation tax you could use the release as an
opportunity to review whether you will purchase corporation tax software. If you
choose not to purchase software, you will be able to use the HMRC service to
generate and submit your iXBRL return and computations. The HMRC service will
not be suitable in all cases though and has some published exclusions.
Existing users of any variant of Sage accounts production software will see that the
mechanism to produce the nal iXBRL accounts will be as straightforward as the
current method of printing to PDF.
We have used the mandation of iXBRL as an opportunity to implement a number of
customer-requested usability enhancements that streamline the production of nal
accounts. These will result in signicant time savings for accountants using our
software. The most obvious change is the introduction of the Interactive Financial
Statements (IFS) into each of the accounts production packages. This is an exciting
development in our accounts production software range and allows customers to
change the wording and format of nal accounts without having to understand any
complex formatting language. Changes can be made directly from the face of the
The production of the iXBRL file will be as
straightforward as printing to PDF
The following are mandated requirements of HMRC:
100% of company accounts to be e-Filed with CT returns
Unlisted companies in accordance with UK GAAP taxonomy**
Listed companies in accordance with IFRS taxonomy
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accounts to customise formats, simply and innitely – for an individual client
company, for example, by accounts format or to create a single in-house style.
If you do not already use software for nal accounts production you should use
this as an opportunity to review whether you might now need to purchase Sage
accounts production software, or whether manually tagging each set of accounts
yourself using an XBRL tagging tool each year (which could be very labour-
intensive) is an acceptable solution for your requirements.
Whilst the published taxonomies include around 5500 tags for the UK GAAP and
signicantly more for IFRS, HMRC have announced a ‘Soft Landing’ – a reduced
tagging requirement in years 1 and 2.
In parallel with HMRC’s mandation of iXBRL, Companies House have stated that
they will now accept unaudited accounts in the same format as HMRC from
July 2010. At present, Companies House only accept online ling of accounts for
limited circumstances using a different format.
**Taxonomy is a classication system.
How is Sage software impacted?
Corporation tax software
Sage Corporation Tax (powered by Abacus) is recognised by HMRC for the
production and submission of iXBRL tax computations, and the submission of iXBRL
accounts. It allows practices to produce corporation tax calculations and forms
CT600 quickly and efciently, and has a 95.1% success rate for rst-time online ling.
Document tagging software
Sage XBRL Tagging (powered by ONESOURCE) has been produced with those
specialist client scenarios in mind, when you need to work on nal accounts that
are in Microsoft® Word format. It’s a simple, intuitive solution that allows you to
add XBRL tags to Word documents, or to accounts that have been pre-prepared
in accounts production software.
Accounts production software
At the end of January 2011 Sage will launch iXBRL-enabled versions of the
Sage accounts production suite – our-market-leading nal accounts production
packages that provide a comprehensive and effective solution for your accounts
production requirements.
We’ve used a prolonged test period to ensure that our compliant software is as
user-friendly as possible, based on customer feedback.
What can you do now?
If you have not already done so, you can register with HMRC’s online ling service
(hmrc.gov.uk). Using Sage Corporation Tax (powered by Abacus) from July 2010
during the voluntary ling period will help you familiarise yourself with HMRC’s
ling regime.
You should look to review internal processes with staff and clients to ensure they are
able to support the additional ling requirements of iXBRL. Our 5-step iXBRL support
‘customer journey’ will ensure that you have the necessary processes and procedures
in place. Find out how it can help you at www.XBRLwithSage.co.uk/support.
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Sage XBRL Usability & Design Panel
If you’d like to help shape the future of Sage software for accountants as we move
towards XBRL functionality, you can join the Sage XBRL Usability & Design Panel;
a community of accountants who will help inform how we develop our software for
the future.
To sign up to the Panel, simply visit http://tiny.cc/3rgc9
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Online ling - A brief history
Corporation tax is one of the nal initiatives to be implemented as part of Lord
Carter’s report and recommendations for HMRC. This process started in 2001 with
recommendations for Payroll and moved through to Taxation Self Assessment
(SA100 for Personal Tax, SA800 for Partnership Tax, SA900 for Trust Tax). Sage have
a fantastic pedigree in providing compliant submissions for these new government
requirements with in excess of 99% success rates for Taxation.
In 2006, Lord Carter issued a further report and recommendations (the full document
can be found at http://www.hmrc.gov.uk/budget2006/carter-review.pdf ) for the
submission of Business Tax information – which are outlined here in the ‘Electronic
strategy’ and ‘Business and employers’ sections.
Electronic strategy
We recommend that the Government should set an
aspirational goal for HMRC that it should aim for
universal electronic delivery of business tax
returns by 2012. It should also aim for universal
electronic delivery of individuals’ tax returns
from IT-literate groups by the same date.
We recommend that HMRC should benchmark
customer satisfaction with its online services
against commercial online services and seek to
learn from best practice.
We also recommend that HMRC should work with
other public and voluntary organisations to ensure
that access to the internet, and appropriate assistance
with using IT, are available locally – for example at libraries
and UK Online centres – for taxpayers who wish to le
their returns online but do not own a computer.
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Business and employers
For businesses and employers we recommend:
VAT: Large, medium-sized (those with turnover above £5.6 million a year) and
newly registering traders should be required to le their VAT returns online,
and make payments electronically, for accounting periods starting after 31
March 2008. Traders with an annual turnover in excess of £100,000 should be
required to le their VAT returns online, and make payments electronically,
for accounting periods starting after 31 March 2010. Paper ling will remain an
option for traders with turnover below £100,000 but the Government should
review the need for this exception in the run-up to 2012.
CT: All companies should be required to le their company tax returns online using
XBRL, and make payments electronically for returns due after 31 March 2010.
PAYE: Large and medium-sized employers (those with 50 or more employees)
were required to le in-year forms (P45 and P46) online from 1 April 2008.
Small employers (those with fewer than 50 employees) were required to le
in-year forms (P45 and P46) online from 1 April 2010.
In early 2008, Sage and other software suppliers were invited through the
Business Application Software Developers’ Association (BASDA – www.BASDA.org)
to join an HMRC forum to discuss the implementation of XBRL for corporation tax.
Known as the HMRC XBRL Tripartite Steering Group, this forum consisted of
HMRC Carter program team members, agents (accountants), institutes representing
the accounting profession and selected software suppliers.
In early discussions with the Steering Group it was proposed that HMRC would
be considering XBRL submissions of the accounts, accompanied by a standard
‘style sheet’ (a template which displays data in a standard format) to allow
the XBRL to be presented in a form that could be read by humans. Through
detailed discussions with HMRC, it was agreed that this approach did not meet
the needs of most accountants as it removed all exibility in the production,
presentation, formatting and branding of the accounts produced. As such,
the concept of embedding XBRL in-line with human readable, exible and
presentable documents was dened rather than offered in a prescriptive ‘style
sheet’. This became iXBRL or inline eXtensible Business Reporting Language.
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More detail on XBRL and iXBRL
Most users of ordinary iXBRL– enabled corporation tax and accounts production
software will be largely or totally unaware of the technical infrastructure which
underpins the iXBRL language. However, software companies, including
accountancy software providers such as Sage, need to take account of iXBRL
and its features when developing their products.
The idea behind XBRL (eXtensible Business Reporting Language) is simple:
• Instead of treating nancial information as a raw text – as in a
printed or electronic document – it provides a descriptive tag
for each item of data. This is computer-readable. For example,
company net prot has its own unique tag
• The introduction of XBRL tags enables automated processing of
business information by computer software, cutting out laborious
and costly processes of manual re-entry and comparison
• Computers can recognise the information in an XBRL document,
select it, analyse it, store it, exchange it with other computers
and present it automatically in a variety of ways for users
• XBRL can greatly increase the speed of handling nancial data,
reduce the chance of error and permit automatic checking
of information
XBRL is an open standard, which is one of a family of ‘XML’ (eXtensible Markup
Language) languages which is becoming a standard means of communicating.
XBRL uses an XML format to deliver a computer-readable set of data in a
standard form. The power of XBRL is not necessarily in the technology, but comes
from the fact that it provides a standard taxonomy (dictionary for the data and
its hierarchy/relationship) which covers the nancial data elements required for
all of the reportable data in a corporation tax return, including the detailed data in
the accounts. XBRL can also show how items are related to one another. It can
thus represent how they are calculated. It can also identify whether they
fall into particular groups for organisational or presentational purposes.
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The UKGAAP and IFRS taxonomies for the UK
are developed by XBRL UK (www.xbrl.org/UK)
Taxonomies are the dictionaries which the language XBRL uses. These are the
categorisations that describe the specic tags for individual items of data
(such as ‘prot’). Each accounting jurisdiction has different accounting regulations,
therefore each jurisdiction can have its own taxonomy for nancial reporting.
Additionally, many different organisations, including regulators, specic industries
or even companies, may also require taxonomies to cover their own business
reporting needs.
In-line XBRL (iXBRL) enables
XBRL–tagged data to be
embedded within standard
HMTL documents –
just like a web page.
Embedding the XBRL
in-line with HTML
allows for the exibility
required around the
production of the
statutory accounts
whilst maintaining the
ability for a computer
to read the data.
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Sources of information
Sage
A website dedicated to informing our customers of all things iXBRL
www.xbrlwithsage.co.uk
HMRC
Information on how to set up an online corporation tax account
www.hmrc.gov.uk/ct/ct-online/file-return/online.htm#3
HMRC
Getting ready for online ling
www.hmrc.gov.uk/carter/index.htm
HMRC
The Carter Review 2006
www.hmrc.gov.uk/budget2006/carter-review.pdf
XBRL
A source of information about XBRL in general and also the specics of its UK
application
www.xbrl.org/uk
XBRL
A useful website bringing together news and views from the XBRL community
www.xbrlblog.com
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iXBRL in Summary
• From 1 April 2011, corporation tax returns for accounting periods ending
after 31 March 2010 and which are led after 31 March 2011 must be
led online, and the submission of tax computations and accounts using
iXBRL will become a compulsory requirement
• If you don’t already use software for corporation tax, use this as an
opportunity to review whether you will purchase corporation tax products,
or whether you can use the HMRC service* to generate and submit your
iXBRL return and computations
• Sage Corporation Tax (powered by Abacus) is iXBRL-compliant, and can
be used to produce/submit tax computations and to submit compliant
nal accounts
• Sage XBRL Tagging (powered by ONESOURCE) enables you to convert
clients’ accounts into XBRL format for submission
• If you don’t already use software for nal accounts production, use this as
an opportunity to review whether you need to purchase Sage accounts
production software, or whether a manual XBRL-tagging tool is an
acceptable solution
• The new accounting standard – IFRS for SMEs – is expected no later than
2013, and requires a new Interactive Financial Statements (IFS) layer in
all accounts production software. This will substantially enhance usability
and functionality
• iXBRL-enabled Sage accounts production software will be launched at
the end of January 2011 and will contain the new IFS layer
*HMRC service will not be suitable in all cases and has some published exclusions. www.hmrc.go.uk
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Paper from well managed forests
Sage (UK) Limited 2010
registered in England No.1045967
GDA20955
To download the Sage Guide to iXBRL,
visit xbrlwithsage.co.uk
Or for any further information concerning the
iXBRL Guide, please email xbrl@sage.com
