IBM Cognos FSR offers one of the most advanced XBRL solutions on the market today. By integrating XBRL into the external reporting process, IBM Cognos FSR makes the tagging, validation and creation of XBRL documents dramatically more efficient and less error prone.
Key XBRL Features in IBM Cognos FSR
- Unique Tag Once™ technology
- Seamless integration with source data
- Audit trail
- Collaboration
- Workflow management
- Financial rounding
IBM Cognos FSR fully aligns with the SEC’s XBRL requirements by making it easier to tag financial data and commentary and deliver output in any number of formats, including XBRL. By choosing IBM Cognos FSR, companies not only address their XBRL tagging requirements but also reduce the risk and costs associated with their current external reporting process.
Seamless Integration to Source Data
Cognos FSR provides an easy-to-use method to pull data from a wide variety of data sources including: the leading ERP systems, the leading financial consolidation applications, relational databases, and OLAP databases. Every number in the final report links directly back to a single data source ensuring that there are no conflicting numbers anywhere in the report.
Changes to the source numbers automatically cascade through the report. For example, journals posted in the source system(s) automatically flow into the XBRL document. This ensures there is only "one version of the truth".
Tag Once Technology
Tag the data with XBRL tags just once with Cognos FSR and future reporting periods automatically pick up the same tags. There is no need to re-tag the document as data changes within the same reporting period because the updated data automatically flows into the XBRL document. And, there is no need to re-tag the document for future reporting periods, because the tags are automatically retained for future reporting periods.
Web-based Data Collection Flowing Directly into XBRL
Web-based data collection provides the ability to collect statistical and operational data – with this information automatically flowing into the XBRL document.
Business Rules
IBM Business Analytics’ Business Rules automatically ensure that all data in your documents tie out. Users can create any number of business rules to verify that summary numbers tie out to the detailed notes or to ensure that data is consistently presented across the document.
Variables in Text
Cognos FSR lets you place variables in text – to ensure that data in your financial statements tie out to the values that are embedded within paragraphs of text. If the data in your financial statements changes, then the values in your paragraphs of text also change – automatically.
Tag Text and Data
Cognos FSR users can easily tag financial data and commentary once and have it automatically flow to future reports.
Support for the Latest Taxonomies
Cognos FSR supports the latest XBRL taxonomies. Users can also extend the standard taxonomies with company-specific tags using the Taxonomy Designer.
Built-in XBRL Viewer
Cognos FSR users can easily view the final XBRL report using the built-in XBRL viewer.
...But XBRL Tagging is Only a Small Part of the Overall External Reporting Process
Cognos FSR delivers an integrated XBRL solution that also automates the external reporting process to make it more efficient, reduce risk and deliver output in multiple formats including XBRL, PDF and MS Word. This creates a faster, less error prone process that gives investors a choice of report formats.
Cognos FSR makes it easier to tag financial data and commentary and output it in any number of formats, including XBRL. IBM Business Analytics in fact helps companies address the pain they currently face in building their external reports and provides the XBRL output with no additional effort.
Key XBRL Documents
- 23 Reasons Why Companies Choose Integrated XBRL
eXtensible Business Reporting Language (XBRL) is a standard designed to improve accuracy and reliability in the electronic transmission of enterprise financial data. The standard was developed by an international non-profit consortium of approximately 450 major companies, organizations and government agencies. XBRL can dramatically improve the automated processing of business information by tagging data, rather than processing information as text.
- eBook – SEC XBRL Mandate for Dummies®
The SEC XBRL mandate for Dummies® is a guide to assist external reporting professionals tasked with quickly and accurately assembling, tagging and filing their companies’ external reports. This excellent reference document explains the basics of XBRL and demystifies the specifics of the SEC’s mandate. Further, the SEC XBRL for Dummies reviews the various options for implementing XBRL tagging, including outsourcing to service providers; bolting on XBRL tagging engines and the deployment of an integrated XBRL solution. External reporting professionals can also use the comprehensive ‘checklist’ of features included in the book to look for in an integrated XBRL filing solution.
- FSN Product Review: Satisfying the multi-stakeholder challenges of the Last Mile of Finance
In recent years the growing demands of statutory and regulatory reporting (e.g., XBRL, reduced filing times, etc.) has heaped pressure on an already stretched corporate finance function tasked with completing the so called, ‘Last Mile’ of finance. In this updated product review, Gary Simon, FSN’s managing editor takes a look at the 'core' functionality and XBRL capabilities of IBM Cognos Financial Statement Reporting (FSR) – a solution specifically designed to address the multi-stakeholder environment of the Last Mile of finance. Learn how Cognos FSR addresses not only the creation of external reports but also the XBRL tagging and XBRL taxonomy extension processes.
- Nucleus Research | Assessing the Benefits of IBM Cognos FSR (including XBRL)
Nucleus Research analyzed deployments of IBM Cognos FSR and found that companies using the application for external report creation and XBRL tagging were able to improve the productivity of accountants, report builders, and their managers. Nucleus analysts also found that the application enabled companies to avoid paying significant fees to third-party printers for XBRL tagging and financial statement production.
- SEC Filings, XBRL and Annual Reports: The Business Case for Automated External Reporting
For finance departments dealing with increasingly complex regulatory reporting requirements and XBRL tagging mandates, this white paper clearly communicates the problems associated with external reporting and the benefits of automation. Written in the format of a business case, this paper describes how to lower corporate risk and cycle times as well as where to find efficiency improvements in a critically important business process. Leverage this paper to help identify areas of improvement within your own external reporting process and to communicate the benefits to your CFO.
- BPM Partners: The Strategic Need to Automate the Last Mile of Finance
If the financial cycle in public companies is a marathon, the "Last Mile of Finance" is one of the toughest, as CFOs race for the tape. The last mile of finance covers the processes and activities that take place between the trial balance and filing of a company's 10-K, 10-Q etc. (including XBRL tagged disclosures) and other required reports. Read this white paper and discover why your business should automate these business processes and "last mile" activities.
- NW Natural excels at XBRL...Using IBM Cognos FSR to automate SEC XBRL Mandate reporting
NW Natural implemented IBM® Cognos® Financial Statement Reporting (FSR), a secure, integrated disclosure management platform which provides comprehensive governance, automation, collaboration and validation tools for narrative-rich financial reports such as XBRL-tagged 10-Q and 10-K filings.
- Integrated XBRL
Public companies have two options when complying with the eXtensible Business Reporting Language (XBRL) mandate: they can add a bolt-on solution to the back end of their external reporting process, an inefficient and risky proposition, or they can leverage an integrated solution. The integrated approach embeds XBRL tagging inside the external reporting process creating reusable XBRL for your next 10-Q or 10-K. With an integrated XBRL solution the risk of errors is reduced while increasing the efficiency and lowering the time needed to complete the entire external reporting process. Read this brochure for more details on how IBM Cognos FSR addresses XBRL tagging.
- XBRL Level IV filing
IBM Cognos FSR reduces the level of effort and risk related to the XBRL Level IV filing. The SEC is adopting the requirement according to the XBRL phase-in provisions in the SEC XBRL mandate rules, “Interactive Data to Improve Financial Reporting,” that footnotes and financial statement schedule be XBRL tagged using four different levels of detail. Read this brochure for more detail behind the XBRL Level IV filing mandate.
