New UK Accounts
Taxonomies - Overview
Peter Calvert
XBRL UK – ICAEW Seminar – 19 May 2014
Why new taxonomies?
 New accounting regulations
 Improvements in the light of experience
 New requirements for XBRL tagging
 New ownership and organisational
structure behind the taxonomies
The new taxonomies
 Full IFRS for UK companies
 FRS 101 (reduced disclosure framework)
 FRS 102 (Financial Reporting Standard
for UK and Ireland)
 Application of the standards
 Similarities and differences
The development project
 Development team under FRC auspices
– Accounting specialists
– Taxonomy developer and coordinator
– FRC project manager
 Technical infrastructure
 Oversight:
– Governance Committee; Technical Task
Force; Closed User Group review
 Timescales: March 2013 – Sept 2014
What happens next?
 Public review of the taxonomies began on
8 May and will last for two months
 Ends Tuesday, 8 July 2014
 Feedback via comment letter or via ‘Yeti’
What happens next?
 Public review of the taxonomies began on
8 May and will last for two months
 Ends Tuesday, 8 July 2014
 Feedback via comment letter or via ‘Yeti’
 Complete taxonomies in light of feedback
 Release with supporting documents by or
before September 2014
 Implementation
Aims and requirements
 General aims:
– Accurate, clear
– Cover data which is useful for analysis,
comparison and review by consumers
– Easy and efficient to use
– Provide unambiguous and consistent
tagged data for consumers
 Completeness requirement:
– Financial data
– Textual information
Broadening use of XBRL
 HMRC:
– Tax risk analysis, policy and planning
 Government departments:
– Policy, statistics and other purposes
 Companies House:
– Public and private consumers; investors;
information companies; credit rating
agencies; banks
 Company financial info in digital format
Demands on taxonomies
 Support more effective use of XBRL by a
broader range of consumers
 Support improved quality of tagging
 Limit and ease the burden on preparer
community
 Meet the needs of 2016 and beyond
 Range of design and content decisions
Main taxonomy features - 1
 Stability decision
– Basic ‘look and feel’ and many features
unchanged
 Careful focus on content and user
– Clarity of presentation and organisation
– Consistency of approach
 Built-in guidance
– Guidance tags, cross-references, supporting
information in ‘documentation’ labels
 Accounting references
Main taxonomy features - 2
 Simplification of textual tagging
 Greater use of dimensions, where
appropriate
 Introduction of ‘typed’ dimensions:
– ‘Analysis’ items
– Groupings – replacement of tuples
 Covered in FRC Accounts Taxonomies
Design document
Structure of the taxonomies
 Same underlying accounting base: IFRS
published by IASB
 Broad range of taxonomy content is the
same across the accounting frameworks
 Common ‘Core taxonomy’
 Extensions to core taxonomy to create
individual taxonomies for Full IFRS, FRS
101 and FRS 102
Summary
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Reasons for new taxonomies
General aims
List of new features
Timescales
Providing feedback
Next presentations
Questions?