XBRL and iXBRL

XBRL, short for eXtensible Business Reporting Language, enables the standardization of data for key stakeholders and investors. The quality of your data is critical, as is selecting the right service provider.

Our Professional Services team provides more XBRL and iXBRL consulting services than the leading financial printers combined. Expertise and support is available for submissions to regulators, including SEC in the United States (supporting US GAAP and IFRS Taxonomies), HMRC in the United Kingdom, and CIPC in South Africa. Wdesk is also able to meet the forthcoming ESMA requirement for ESEF reporting in 2020.

What level of support do you need?

Our experienced team is with you every step of the way, with three support options to choose from:

1. Full service: Your dedicated manager will tag, review, and file your document
2. Support as you need it: Pick and choose what areas of your filing need assistance
3. DIY: Tag XBRL yourself, but lean on a support manager if you need help

Companies are faced with the decision to complete XBRL tagging in-house or to outsource. The most successful filers take an integrated approach, using the following guidelines:

• Leverage a single system to manage the entire financial process from close to tagging
• Simultaneously review the EDGAR document, disclosure tags, and fact properties
• Work with a team of dedicated XBRL experts to enjoy the best of both worlds, as no one knows your financial reports better than you do

Data quality is a significant issue for XBRL.

Workiva leads the quality initiative with the U.S. Data Quality Committee that reduced errors by 64% in 2016. We maintain a large ongoing investment in XBRL mapping and tagging technologies—including Arelle, the open-source XBRL validation engine used by the SEC.

Wdesk incorporates an additional level of validation checks that look at the meaning of the tags used from a business and accounting perspective to help you identify errors.

Manage change, revisions, and validations across internal and external teams without losing time.

• Manage updates, changes, and commentary
• Simplify certifications and sign-off processes
• Assign and respond to tasks in your data and reports
• Roll documents forward to ensure XBRL and iXBRL tags are consistent with those filed in previous quarters

Be confident in your data.

Built-in controls ensure peace of mind. Wdesk allows you to monitor and restrict permissions by role or open documents for simultaneous collaboration by large teams.

Leverage version control and blackline comparisons to document revisions. Employ a full history and audit trail of changes.

The Workiva team has extensive background in global regulatory requirements and taxonomies. Our thought leadership team consists of some of the best-known XBRL and accounting experts in the world, including the:

• Former Chairman of the Financial Accounting Standards Board
• Former SEC Deputy Chief Accountant for Policy

Ongoing education.

Workiva offers an extensive library of content, ongoing training, and nation-wide events to help you continue to expand your knowledge base. Learning opportunities include:

• Help content
• Wdesk Community
• XBRL Office Hours
• Classroom Training
• On-site training
• E-learning modules
• Annual Workiva User Conference