XBRL and internal auditors (part 2)

There are also many opportunities for internal auditors when an organization tags the US GAAP Taxonomy deeply into its business and financial systems. Imaging that an organization tags XBRL into its ERP at the general ledger account and cost center level. Those XBRL tags could be utilized to feed financial data to a variety of systems such as consolidation and financial reporting software, tax software and regulatory reporting software. In addition, internal auditors could utilize the XBRL data tags to:

·         Move from statistical sampling of financial information to performing 100% testing by utilizing Excel, Access or similar desktop software.

·         Eliminate or reduce manual intervention and provide strengthened ability to centralize controls, processes and performance standards thereby reducing risk

·         Providing reliable, consistent and electronically available information that allows internal audit to develop standardized, shareable and electronically executable internal audit programs.

·         Increase the ability to enforce controls and provide analytics that can be persistently shared for communication and collaboration with internal and external stakeholders, including external auditors

Have you limited the potential of XBRL in your organization? Is accounting and finance the only function involved in your XBRL process? Consider the longer term impact and benefit of XBRL. Now could be the time for you to involve your internal audit, information technology and tax functions to maximize the benefits of XBRL within your organization.