Statistics New Zealand and XBRL

1. Statistics New Zealand and XBRL

2. Presentation Outline • Overview of Statistics New Zealand and the existing financial data collection framework • Who is Statistics NZ • What are our financial data collections • Compliance costs • Trying to be flexible in our data collection strategies • How XBRL will fit into or even change this framework • External drivers for XBRL uptake • Benefits of XBRL in a data collection context • Taxonomies • An example of XBRL being used to meet survey requirements • Looking forward

3. Overview of Statistics New Zealand • Statistics New Zealand (Te Tari Tatau) is a government department and New Zealand's national statistical office • The Statistics Act 1975 sets out the Government Statistician's role in, and responsibilities for, all official statistics • To meet its responsibilities under the Act, Statistics New Zealand's main roles are to; • Provide leadership for New Zealand's official statistics. • Be the key contributor to the collection, analysis and dissemination of official statistics relating to New Zealand's economy, environment and society. • Build and maintain trust in official statistics. • Ensure that official statistics are of high integrity and quality and are equally available to all.

4. Top Down Review • Statistics NZ, Treasury and State Services Commission participated in a review of New Zealand’s official statistics system • Main initiatives to come out of this review • Establishing a new model for official statistics • Leadership by the Government Statistician • Monitoring respondent burden across Government • Establishing an Independent Statistical Advisory Committee • Establishing a research data archive

5. Compliance Costs of Surveys • Statistics NZ is acutely aware of the compliance burdens facing our survey respondents • Because of New Zealand’s small size even medium sized business can be key contributors in sample surveys • Some industries are surveyed more intensely than others • Some ballpark figures that relate to Statistics NZ’s direct surveying activity • 130000 enterprises directly surveyed each year across 32 surveys • Paper forms average between 25 and 30 minutes to complete • Approximately 60000 hours or 7500 working days or 50 person years!!

6. Compliance Reduction Strategies • Small businesses • Reduce compliance through use of administrative data • Simple standard XBRL based templates • Large businesses • Tailored collection options • XBRL Initiators • Medium businesses • Easy to supply options from standard business records • XBRL omnibus reporting for multiple surveys

7. Financial Data Collections • Financial data is mostly collected to produce National Accounts statistics which are based around an International Framework • The Annual Enterprise Survey is the largest comprehensive annual financial survey of New Zealand businesses. • 20500 direct survey units supplemented by 225000 IR10 units • Collects income, expenditure and balance sheet information from industry groups within the economy • Less detailed subannual financial information collected by industry (manufacturing, retail and wholesale)

8. Accepting Alternatives to the Questionnaire • The primary source for direct survey data is paper forms • The two main alternatives are electronic reports and hardcopies of accounts • Accounts are often actively solicited from potential non-respondents in order to achieve corporate response rates • Electronic reports are most often MS Excel spreadsheets • Often larger respondents reporting for a number of survey units • Statistics NZ has strict guidelines on the acceptance of electronic data in terms of both security and authentication • Also take data over the phone and sent by email

9. Problems Accepting Ad Hoc Formats • Accounts • High internal processing overhead • Do not always match survey variables • Consolidation issues • Spreadsheets • Often have unique layouts and formats • Need to be customised by Statistics NZ to fit into predefined bulk loading processes • Not all questions answered (eg GST, reporting period) • Phone and email • Often unstructured and has gaps • More likely to be an estimate or a guess • Email poses security risks

10. XBRL Environment • Compliance cost • International Accounting Standards • Mandatory in NZ from December 2007 • Early adoption from December 2005 • Increasing number of offshore collection units • New Zealand as a branch office • Cross Agency reporting • Opportunity for single point reporting - IRD, CO, NZX, etc

11. XBRL - Benefits for Data Suppliers • Assuming that ... • XBRL is integrated with accounting/reporting software • Everyone is using the same taxonomies • Information may only need to be rendered once • A single report could meet the requirements of multiple agencies • The effort required to produce reports could be greatly reduced • After initial set up reports could be generated automatically • Changes in Statistics NZ requirements could feed through automatically to collections

12. XBRL - Benefits for Statistics NZ • Timeliness • Data could be made available right at the end of the reporting period • Transparency • Know exactly what items have contributed to particular variables • Lower processing costs • No longer structure or format dependent • New statistics without surveying • Low level data could be reassembled to meet different needs • More consistent data • Automation of data supply eliminates human error • Coherence at the unit record level

13. Taxonomies • Collection Taxonomies • Reuse of future Industry standard taxonomies, e.g. payroll • May be a government wide taxonomy • Total picture of requirements matched to what existing taxonomies can provide • Publishing Taxonomies • Will need to create a supplementary taxonomy for publishing statistical data • International taxonomies for national statistical agencies

14. Example - Quarterly Local Authority Survey • Currently a spreadsheet completed by Auckland City Council • 3.5 hours to complete • 44 variables based on accounting items from both the Income and Expenditure, and Fixed Asset schedule • Not including comments and other metadata • IT service provider :UBMatrix Wiztech • providing XBRL expertise • Auckland City Council - SAP/excel to XBRL • Statistics NZ - XBRL to Sybase

15. Initial XBRL Data Collection Architecture

16. How the Exchange Might Work • Auckland City Council provides an Excel output from SAP • 2002/3 data • Excel tagged as XBRL and an instance document generated • Instance document sent to Statistics NZ via StatsGate • StatsGate is a pre-existing secure data lodgement facility • Instance document unravelled and loaded to Sybase • Sybase table planned to be the single data entry point for survey systems to interact with

17. What We Have Learned So Far • Receiving electronic files is relatively straight forward • It’s something we do already • A fully automated end to end process is not likely in the short term • There is a significant overhead associated with supplementing the existing taxonomies with Statistics NZ elements • Of the 44 variables 24 had to be defined separately as Statistics NZ elements • These 24 are spread evenly through income, expenditure and fixed assets • Some financial surveys may be more suited to XBRL sourced data than others • Balance of Payments vs Quarterly Local Authority Survey

18. Supplementary Taxonomy • A hypothetical example of how Statistics NZ data requirements may not match IFRS/NZ GAAP

19. XBRL - One Mode of Many • Statistics NZ will still receive paper questionnaires • Along with XBRL Statistics NZ may receive other electronic modes • Spreadsheets designed by Statistics NZ in a tailored environment • Internet forms • Telephone interviewing • Regardless of the mode Statistics NZ wants to have one inwards data flow • XBRL may provide Statistics NZ with a better way of integrating data from multiple sources • XBRL tags could potentially be applied to statistical output data from all sources

20. Multi-Modal Data Collection Concept

21. Issues We are Still Thinking About • Uptake – How can we promote XBRL • SMEs versus larger businesses • Financial software packages • Fully automated transactions • Moving towards meeting statutory obligations online • Mode effects • More accurate data may result in revisions to time series

22. Statistics NZ’s and XBRL • Continue building a picture of our future Data Collection environment • Identifying critical implementation issues • Realising XBRLs potential to meet our collection challenges • Collaboration • Common taxonomy across Government • Collaborate with other statistical agencies XBRL potentially offers so much in terms of reduced compliance costs, transparency, accuracy and timeliness.

23. Questions