Thank you Ivian.
Next, we will move on to areas in which XBRL can be implemented in Singapore.
The next important question is why do we have to promote the use of XBRL?
It would bring great convenience to users (Advantages of XBRL), hence it would be a pity if it is only implemented in ACRA locally.
In order to widen the usage, XBRL can be implemented in more area so that it will become a standard for financial reporting in all areas in future.
Firstly, XBRL can be implemented in two areas, financial and non-financial areas.
Credit Management
Information of borrowers can be organised using XBRL for clearer reporting, exchange and comparison of background credit status.
Finance departments/banks can also use XBRL to evaluate the financial status of various companies before approving credit approval/loans.
Stock Exchange
XBRL can also be used to handle information in stock exchange (Advantages)
Accounting standards can also be implemented into the system which allow the function of sending financial statements to government via the ACRA website.
Security functions should also be provided to prevent financial statements from unauthorised access.
Once information of stock exchange are in XBRL form, it can be easily retrieved and hence bring great convenience
Warehouse Stock Keeping
Next we will move on to the non-financial areas.
XBRL also can be implemented in warehouses in which large amounts of stocks are being kept. For example, when a stocks fall below a certain number (10), the system will highlight the particular stock to be replenished.
This will save a lot of time spent on doing stock-takes.
Library
XBRL can be used in the National Library Board.
The information of the large collections of books (genre, author, status) in the library can be organised and shared across all branches of the libraries easily.
This allows timely retrieval of information as well as standardization with other libraries for easy exchange of information.
Next, I will pass my time over to Shihui. She will tell you more about the challenges faced and solutions to it.
Challenge:
-FS manager cannot be downloaded and only can be accessible online.
Recommendations:
-FS manager should be made available for downloads so as to reduce heavy traffic on the ACRA website.
-By downloading the FS manager, the accountant files it at his/her discretion with lesser mistakes.
-Reduces human errors such as posting the statements wrongly.
Challenge:
Creating, analyzing, and verifying of financial reports are time consuming and error-prone.
Date need to be manually re-entered or copied and pasted.
Recommendations:
A pop-up function can be used to alert the user in case of irregularities revealed. This will help in immediate amendments.
Data could be retrieved automatically by the system instead of finance manager filling up BizFile to save time
Challenge:
FS manager is newly developed and its stability has not been proven.
Preparers are advised to regularly save the data file.
Recommendation:
FS manager should be made more stable to prevent itself from crashing and thus causing the need to re-prepare the file.
Auto-save functions could be added to help prevent loss of work.
Challenge:
Current ACRA’s taxonomy is significantly limited compared to those set up in other countries.
Possibility that it will limit inhibit management’s ability to tailor income statement and balance sheet presentation to suit the entity’s circumstances.
Recommendations:
Including a more comprehensive specification of validation requirements for XBRL instances and taxonomies
Gives taxonomy authors the ability to draw tighter constraints on acceptable instances.
XBRL-enabled ERP systems should be designed in line with the ACRA taxonomy to ease the transporting of financial statements.
Implementing of accounting standards into the system,
Allowing the sending of financial statement to government via ACRA website and,
providing security functions to prevent financial statements from being modified/access easily.
