ACRA enhances corporate transparency; companies must ensure XBRL information is accurate and complete
ACRA is enhancing corporate transparency by making the business and financial information filed, publicly accessible. Since the company’s filing information will henceforth be a public record, it is essential for companies to ensure that they provide correct and accurate data.
Earlier this year ACRA decided to publicly name and shame the company directors with serious reporting breaches in the financial statements.
Going a step further in the interest of corporate transparency, companies must ensure that the XBRL information filed with ACRA complies with three major factors mentioned below:
- Accuracy
- Complete Information
- Transparency
In most of the companies, XBRL data is handled by the accountants who are not exposed to XBRL best practices. ACRA has listed the possible common XBRL errors to avoid incorrect XBRL data. The top common errors observed from past XBRL financial statements filed with ACRA are listed below. Companies should consider the guidance provided which will help to ensure the completeness and accuracy of the XBRL financial statements that they prepare and file.
5 Common XBRL Errors to avoid to enhances Corporate Transparency
1. Share-Capital inconsistency:The user must ensure that share capital in financial statement matches the records of the BizFile portal and AGM financials unless there is a change due to currency or changes made to share capital.
2. Consistency between Past Year and Current Year:The user must ensure that the data presented in the current year’s Financial Statements are accurate and consistent with the prior year’s filing; check if changes to comparative amounts in the current year financials are due to restatements or reclassifications alone.
3. Inconsistent data in XBRL Financials compared to AGM Financials:Data consistency must be followed by XBRL Financials and the AGM Financials.
- Currency and scaling
- Presentation currency
- Presentation format (eg. Income statement type by ‘function’ or by ‘nature’)
4. Incomplete templates of XBRL data:The user must complete all templates ‘under the minimum requirements list’ which are generated using the BizFinx preparation tool by default. Blank templates are acceptable only when they are not applicable.
5. Mapping errors in XBRL:Users tend to make mistakes while performing the mapping, by not choosing the appropriate taxonomy elements in the templates. When there is no appropriate element available, then the user can use “others” as a common tag.
Hence, companies should be careful about strategizing the preparation of XBRL documents. The main reason why companies prefer to prepare XBRL statements in-house is to save cost; but by doing so, such companies are also exposing themselves to the dangers of minor and serious breaches in XBRL reports.
12+ years of experience and successful filing of more than 100,000+ XBRL files across the globe has made DataTracks an expert in the XBRL industry. DataTracks goes a step further by pre-validating the XBRL files on ACRA gateway, assuring customers peace of mind. Our XBRL experts deal with ‘genuine’ and ‘possible’ errors for the error-free reporting by referring to the prior year’s ACRA filings. For effective review, DataTracks sends the ‘PDF review copy’ to clients for any changes.
To find out more about DataTracks, visit www.datatracks.com.sg or send an email to enquiry@datatracks.com.sg