These are busy times, don't forget XBRL

For the moment, International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS) is at the top of everyone's worry list. But a Compliance Week survey reminds us that the SEC has published a proposal to mandate XBRL for all companies by 2011. Fortune 500 companies would be required to adopt as early as next spring. This major reporting technology and IFRS would be quite a one-two blow: new numbers and a new way of reporting them. You would be wise to get your head out of the sand on XBRL. Unfortunately, the Compliance Week survey found 80 percent of company respondents said "nobody on their staff is well-versed" in XBRL. And 59 percent said "they either have just begun reading up on the technology, or have done no research at all." This could easily bite you. Time for a reality check.  Here are the survey results.