ThinkTWENTY20

By Gerald Trites, FCPA, FCA

Marchionne di Coppo Stefani lived in Florence during the great plague of 1348. He wrote about it in his Cronaca Fiorentina. 

The Black Death started in Florence in March, 1348, with the first wave continuing until September, a period of six months. There were successive waves until 1350. During that time, Florence's population was reduced from around 120,000 inhabitants to around 50,000. In Europe overall, some 30 – 50% of the population died. There were other outbreaks over the next few centuries.

Deloitte, in conjunction with CPA Canada, has just released a Directors Guide. It’s the first of a series and is a comprehensive guide for directors on corporate governance, especially important in this era of Covid and massive change in business models, work routines and organization. It's highly recommended and can be downloaded from this site. https://www.iasplus.com/en-ca/publications/directors-guide/directors-guide-2020-21

The European Union has indicated that, due to Covid 19, EU Member States will have the option of delaying the European Single Electronic Format (ESEF) in their filings for one year. ESEF is the Inline XBRL mandate for public company and public interest entities in the European Economic Area. 

There has been a lot of preparation and significant innovation in preparing for ESEF, including a number of new Inline XBRL tagging tools that take "Design + Data" to the next level. With these tools, it is possible to create engaging and impactful reports and presentations that are fully marked up with Inline XBRL tags. 

This doesn't just meet the needs of the ESEF mandate, it also meets the needs of a host of other kinds of corporate reports, government publications, product or service specifications where inline XBRL can be useful. 

The EU is one of many governments around the world now working towards digital reporting for a much wider array of corporate reports, starting with ESG or "non-financial" reporting. This is just one of the many ways that Inline XBRL can be used to help improve accountability and transparency in business performance. While Covid-19 is a bump in the road for adoption, there are almost unlimited opportunities for this kind of human/machine readable reporting.