Entity specific disclosures in XBRL reports
31 Mar, 2018
XBRL International has issued draft guidelines for enterprise-specific disclosures (ESDs) in XBRL reports.
ESDs are facts included in a business report as a result of requirements from authoritative sources such as International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS) and U.S. Generally Accepted Accounting Principles (US GAAP), or voluntarily provided by the reporting entity. They are sufficiently unique as to be considered specific to the reporting entity or to a small number of reporting entities.
ESDs require special handling in XBRL as the base taxonomy may not be intended, or even able, to cover all the possible reporting requirements that reporting entities include in reports when applying the principles and requirements of a specific reporting domain. In addition, the character of ESDs makes it difficult for financial users to compare companies' financial results because ESDs are rarely defined in a recognised taxonomy while they are widely used in open reporting environments, such as IFRS reporting, which is largely based on principle.
The draft guidelines are available here. Comments are requested by 23 May 2018.