Everything You Need to Know about XBRL Filing

 Who Are Required to Do the XBRL filing?

Singapore companies use XBRL filing for business reporting and communicate their financial and business data electronically to ACRA. Accountants and XBRL filing services Singapore assist them in the task.

Who Benefits from XBRL Filing

· Singaporean Companies

· Government Agencies

· Regulators like ACRA

· Investors

· Accountants

· Financial Analysts

· Financial Institutes

· Data Providers

What are the Benefits of XBRL Filing?

The data submitted to ACRA is structured and is in a uniform format. It is easy to mine and analyse the repeating patterns and to find the latest trends using computer software tools.

What is XBRL?

XBRL or eXtensible Business Reporting Language is a variant of XML language. The American Institute of Public Accountants created XBRL in 1998.

Singapore first implemented XBRL filing requirements in 2007 for corporate financial reporting. You, as a new Singaporean business owner, need to get familiar with terms like XBRL filing, taxonomy, and data elements. It will enable you to use XBRL to increase the accuracy and reliability of your submitted financial data.

Who Must to Submit in XBRL Format?

As per ACRA, every Singaporean company limited or unlimited by shares must file its Financial Statements (FS) in an XBRL format. Even dormant Singaporean companies need to follow this rule. XBRL filing services Singapore can convert their FS data into XBRL format and prepare an XBRL report.

In 2020, ACRA updated XBRL reporting requirements. It revised and reduced the number of data elements to streamline the XBRL filing. The change became effective on 1 May 2021.

ACRA’s Revised XBRL Reporting Requirements

Now, your provider offering XBRL filing services in Singapore can use one of the four different XBRL templates appropriate for your circumstances.

· Full XBRL template: ACRA reduced by 50% of data elements from this template to about 210. Companies need to use these to capture their financial info and selected notes for FS

· Simplified XBRL template: ACRA recommends this template in place of XBRL FSH (General). There are about 120 data elements from this template

· XBRL FSH (Banks) template: This template has about 80 data elements

· XBRL FSH (Insurance) template: This template has about 80 data elements

Who are the other Users of XBRL?

In addition to the Singapore companies, others use XBRL to exchange data. They are as follows:

Businesses

Businesses use the XBRL format to share data within their group accurately. Those in a supply chain also use XBRL to exchange data among themselves. It helps them in assessing activity and controlling risk.

Accounting Firms

Accountants and firms offering XBRL filing services Singapore use XBRL to assist their clients in fulfilling their reporting needs.

Financial Analysts and Investors

Financial analysts like individuals and institutes use the XBRL format to judge relative performance and risk. Investors use XBRL reports to compare investments based on their performance.

Data Vendors

Data vendors use XBRL to create ratings and comparisons.

Government Agencies

Government agencies use the XBRL format to reduce red tape and streamline business reporting.

Regulating Agencies

· Regulating agencies like Stock Exchanges and Securities use XBRL to monitor the performance of listed securities and study the compliance of companies.

· ACRA uses XBRL for collecting and publishing data for companies.

· Agencies implementing monetary and statistical policies use XBRL to gather financial data.

· Financial regulators use the XBRL format to collect

If you run a Singaporean company, then the chances are that you will need to take care of its XBRL filing. It is a tedious task, and Singapore’s provider of XBRL filing services can assist you with it. SBS Consulting is one such provider. Call us at 6536 0036 or email us at info@sbsgroup.com.sg to get answers to your XBRL filing related queries.