Since 1 November 2007, companies required to file financial statements with ACRA, are to convert their financial statements into XBRL for submission. With effect from 3 March 2014, the revised XBRL filing requirements under the BizFinx system apply.
What is XBRL
XBRL stands for eXtensible Business Reporting Language. It is a language for the electronic communication of business and financial data worldwide. As one of the family of “XML” languages, it is becoming a standard means of communicating information between businesses and on the Internet.
XBRL is being developed by an international non-profit consortium of over 600 companies, organisations and government agencies. It is an open standard, free of licence fees. It is already being put to practical use in a number of countries and implementations of XBRL are growing rapidly around the world. (Source: http://www.xbrl.org/)
Providing major benefits in the preparation, analysis and communication of business information, XBRL offers cost savings, greater efficiency, and improved accuracy and reliability to all those involved in supplying or using financial data.
Who are required to file
| Filing Requirements | Definition | Solvent (The company is able to meet its debts when they fall due) | Insolvent (The company is not able to meet its debts when they fall due) |
|---|---|---|---|
| EPC | An Exempt Private Company is a private company which has at most 20 shareholders. No corporation holds (directly or indirectly) any beneficial interest in the shares. | Exempted from filing financial statements, but are encouraged to file with following options:
Need to complete an online declaration of solvency | Options of:
|
| Private Company (Non EPC) | A company limited by shares with at most 50 shareholders | Must file accounts using full set of XBRL financial statements | Must file accounts using full set of XBRL financial statements |
Why engage a professional
To prepare the XBRL financial statements, preparers will need to do mapping by matching information within the AGM financial statements (e.g. the amount of fixed assets) to a relevant concept within the Taxonomy (e.g. Property, Plant and Equipment).
XBRL conversion of the financial statements requires familiarity with the BizFinx XBRL conversion software as well as technical accounting knowledge of Singapore Financial Reporting Standards (SFRS)
For this reason, people in the company who are most familiar with the financial statements should be involved in mapping financial statements information to taxonomy concepts.
The directors of the company are responsible for the accuracy of the XBRL submission. They may be familiar with the business operations, but they may lack the required accounting knowledge and competency in using the BizFinx XBRL conversion software.
Outsourcing XBRL conversion and filing saves time and effort in meeting your company’s statutory obligations, leaving you free to focus on running your business.
To safeguard our independence as auditors, we do not provide XBRL conversion and filing services. Our preferred accountancy service provider, KSN Group, can assist you: KSN Group XBRL filing services.