Interactive Data Analysis Implementing new methodologies in statistical data collection: XBRL

1. 22nd XBRL International Conference“Sharing Economic Information in a Global World: the XBRL Contribution”17-19 May 2011Brussels, Belgium Interactive Data Analysis Implementing new methodologies in statistical data collection: XBRL Alessandro Zeli 19th May

2. XBRL in Italy: introduction • New information and communication technologies offer opportunities for simplified data collection in order to avoid an excessive burden on businesses and to improve quality of statistical information. • Between the new tools specifically designed to capture automatically statistical data from companies' accounts into electronic questionnaires XBRL (eXtensible Business Reporting Language) standard represents one of the most important technology for diffusion and efficiency. Bruxelles, 19th May 2011

3. XBRL in Italy: introduction Special attention is going to pay to look into the possibilities of wider use for statistical purposes of XBRL, which is an open standard for electronic communication of business and financial data. It is used for tagging and exchanging financial information in a number of countries by different institutions. Bruxelles, 19th May 2011

4. XBRL in Italy: introduction XBRL can enable common reporting streams for administrativeand statisticaldata. In Italy has already been published and adopted a financial reporting taxonomy and Istat is currently working for making the XBRL financial reporting data directly available for statistical purposes. Bruxelles, 19th May 2011

5. Cover letter … • Data manager • Handle the questionnaire sections to different dpts • Data manager • Collects data • Manages call-backs • Data check • Data manager • questionnaire sending • Respondents • Data search and manual imputation TIMING (Too long) Reminders Penalties • Errors due to data recording and processing • Cost due to dpts coordination • Pwd loss Increasing costs Decreasing in quality std XBRL as a tool for telereporting

6. “Istance”automatic sending Cover letter Data manager Automatic XBRL elaboration Automatic check TIMING (short) • Automatic data capture from different IT system • No depts involved, Automatic check and sending Lesser Costs High Quality XBRL as a tool for telereporting Bruxelles, 19th May 2011

7. Bank of Italy Union of Commerce Chambers XBRL Jurisdiction Professional order of financial accountants Mainenterprises’ syndicate (Confindustria) Banks’ syndicate (ABI) State of the Art: XBRL Jurisdiction in Italy Bruxelles, 19th May 2011

8. State of the Art:XBRL Jurisdiction in Italy In 2006 the Italian Government puts corporations under the obligation to transmit the balance sheet to Commerce Chambers (CC) with an electronic format (i.e. XBRL) (artt. 21 e 21-bis,l D.L. 286/2006). Since 2006 the Italian XBRL Jurisdiction worked for this aim A taxonomy for balance sheet to be transmitted to CC was ready in the late 2008 and it was approved and published by the official Authority for ITC for the Public Bodies in March 2009. Bruxelles, 19th May 2011

9. State of the Art: XBRL for enterprises’ financial reports Henceforth all limited enterprises had to adopt XBRL in order to transmit official data to CC for the Profits and Loans and Financial Statement section. 2010 can be assessed as the first year for XBRL balance sheet transmission and the results of the 2010 balance sheets collection witness the large success of the initiative. Bruxelles, 19th Mary 2011

10. XBRL for enterprises’ financial reports Source: Chambers of Commerce Around 900,000 limited enterprises Results of the first XBRL financial reports data collection by CC (Financial year 2009) Bruxelles, 19th Mary 2011

11. Istat participation to the XBRL Jurisdiction 2007 Istat participation to the WG concerning additional note and IAS taxonomies for financial reports 2008 Istat is a member of Steering Committee of XBRL Italian Jurisdiction. April 2010 Istat proposed the creation of an ad hoc WG devoted to the development of a XBRL Statistical Taxonomy May 2010 Current Innovations in Istat Bruxelles, 19th Mary 2011

12. In July the WG “Statistical Taxonomy” began to work July 2010 First drafts of Statistical Taxonomies for Structural and Short Terms Statistics January 2011 Definitive Release of Statistical Taxonomies for Structural and Short Terms Statistics April 2011 Current Innovations in Istat Bruxelles, 19th Mary 2011

13. Istat participated to the XBRL Jurisdiction working groups, originally in order to represent the statistical needs in terms of definitions and information collected. In the last years Istat planned a more ambitious target: The implementation of an ad hoc XBRL taxonomy for official statistics purposes. Current Innovations in Istat Bruxelles, 19th Mary 2011

14. Conceptual framework XBRL organises data in according to a taxonomy implemented by a National Jurisdiction, so XBRL can detect the basic accounting data stored in the enterprises management system following taxonomy requests XBRL taxonomy can follow the IV Directive scheme or the IAS/IFRS accounting principles or, alternately, statistical criteria (SBS Regulation). Bruxelles, 19th Mary 2011

15. Conceptual framework XBRL can capture data at “high” level, hence at the aggregate level (financial report for instance) or at “low” level as required by statistical questionnaires (detailed item non included in the minimum required by financial report). Low level data capturing implies the standardisation and the “translation” (i.e. transformation), by means taxonomies, of the items currently present inside the enterprises management system, into statistical variables. Bruxelles, 19th Mary 2011

16. Conceptual framework So it is important to develop XBRL as an instrument for extracting data from the enterprises management system rather then utilise it as a mere communication instrument. The information flows have to be organised as presented in the following. Bruxelles, 19th Mary 2011

17. Conceptual framework Bruxelles, 19th May 2011

18. Perspectives In July 2010 the “Statistical Taxonomy” Project started and the following targets were planned: • to create a conceptual statistical taxonomy matching the necessities of SBS an STS Regulation, • to detect cost and benefits for enterprises in adopting XBRL for statistical data collection and transmission, Bruxelles, 19th Mary 2011

19. Perspectives • to “translate” the conceptual taxonomy in XBRL, • to update the enterprises’ software for financial accounting in cooperation with the software vendors, • to experiment on a voluntary basis the actual statistical data collection with XBRL by the early 2012. Bruxelles, 19th Mary 2011

20. Perspectives In order to achieve the goals described above two WG were created. • The first one in the framework of XBRL Jurisdiction, • the second one is an Istat internal WG. Bruxelles, 19th Mary 2011

21. XBRL WGs • Jurisdiction WG members • enterprises’ syndicate, • Official GAAP Authority, • professional order • of financial accountants, • software vendors • enterprises Istat WG members SBS surveys STS surveys NA IT experts Information feedback Validation feedback Perspectives Bruxelles, 19th Mary 2011

22. Perspectives The aim of the first WG is to make the stakeholders of the projects meet with the official data collector (Istat). In particular the participants to the WG are: • the enterprises’ syndicate, • the Official GAAP Authority, • the professional order of financial accountants, • the software vendors. Bruxelles, 19th Mary 2011

23. Perspectives The Istat internal WG collects the needs and provides the necessary coordination between : • SBS Regulation • STS Regulations, • National Account. Bruxelles, 19th Mary 2011

24. Istat surveys involved in XBRL Project Our target is to supply a simplification in filling in and transmitting statistical data and, by means XBRL format, to make the statistical burden notably decrease. Bruxelles, 19th Mary 2011

25. Istat surveys involved in XBRL Project • In order to achieve this target it has been decided to plan a gradual approach and to take into account two main aspects: • enterprise size and linked to this aspect: the number of questionnaires required to fill in, the presence of an advanced management system, • the easy XBRL adaptability for the account variables required. Bruxelles, 19th Mary 2011

26. Istat surveys involved in XBRL Project Bruxelles, 19th Mary 2011

27. Istat surveys involved in XBRL Project • The surveys presented above register a remarkable complexity and an important impact both in terms of the number of involved enterprises and in terms of number of required questionnaires for a single enterprise. • This set of surveys will be gradually extended in order to involve other Istat surveys and tinier firms. Bruxelles, 19th Mary 2011

28. Software architecture plan The WG constituted a IT task force in order to detect tools to develop XBRL instances and plan the software architecture describing the data flows from Istat to enterprises and from enterprises to Istat. Bruxelles, 19th Mary 2011

29. XBRL grp Enterprise grp ISTAT grp taxonomy layer XBRL TAXONOMY STORAGE sbs sts Enterprise cn communication layer REPORT PREPARATION REPORT UPDATING METADATA TRANSMISSION METADATA DELIVERY QUESTIONNAIRE PREPARATION XBRL REPORT EXTRACTION REPORT TRANSMISSION REPORT RECEPTION DATA REPOSITORY REPORT DELIVERY REPORT PROCESSING DATA STORAGE data source layer data usage layer Software architecture plan Bruxelles, 19th May 2011

30. Software architecture plan • The procedures included in “data usage/source layer” will manage the creation and development of the “istances”, validate the instance document with respect to the reference taxonomy and customise the validation rules and so they will make the questionnaires embedded within the XBRL taxonomies. Bruxelles, 19th Mary 2011

31. Software architecture plan • The task “taxonomy layer” edits taxonomies, XBRL istance document and manages change and modifications. • The task “communication layer” will manage XBRL file, the XBRL Adapter and the report storage Bruxelles, 19th Mary 2011

32. Achieved results The XBRL WGs have produced until now: • A draft taxonomy for annual surveys (SBS Regulation) • Draft taxonomies for surveys on short terms statistics (turnover, employments, retail sales) • Template of software architecture • A survey on main XBRL tools Bruxelles, 19th Mary 2011

33. Questions? Bruxelles, 19th Mary 2011