'Slow traction' on XBRL.

• Author: Marshall, Jeffrey
• Position: Financial reporting - EXtensible Business Reporting Language

While "it is clear that XBRL (eXtensible Business Reporting Language) will be the future of financial reporting; it's just not quite there yet," opines Jeff Somers, a CPA and principal with Roth-stein Kass' Corporate Governance Group (www.rkco.com), based in Roseland, N.J.

Somers' comments underscore some of the ongoing industry talk about XBRL: there are still issues with labeling, and--more importantly--many CFOs remain skeptical about the benefits. Indeed, the voluntary "interactive data" program launched by the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) hasn't drawn a horde of participants.

Somers sees "slow and steady traction [on XBRL] until mandatory compliance is implemented. Now that the SEC has finally put a major investment into upgrading the current EDGAR database, we should expect the XBRL participation to accelerate. Unfortunately, the taxonomies (or line-by-line labeling) have not been complete, [though] the SEC has committed $5.5 million to the project that is anticipated to be done in less than a year. With the slow progression of the taxonomies, it appears that the earliest foreseeable mandatory compliance would be for 2009 filings.

"Without having mandatory compliance," Somers adds, "it will be...