SEC moves ahead with XBRL

As expected, the Securities and Exchange Commission has announced that it will propose a rule that would require large firms (a public float of more than $5 billion) to use XBRL (extensible business reporting language) for fiscal periods. A year later, all public companies would be required to follow suit. This follows the SEC's vaunted three-year pilot program. The upside is that companies will have to make interactive financial reports, which have been talked about for so long, a reality. The devil will be in the details of the rule, of course. There is a tendency to expect too much of technology. Financial Week reports that some think that data tagging might have prevented the credit crunch. That's going a bit overboard. Every company will decide how much beyond the baseline they will tag. Chances are, the mindset will not change: They disclose the bare minimum as a protective measure.  

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