The Financial Reporting Council (FRC) Lab has published a report on structured digital reporting which sets outs some areas of focus for companies and suggestions to optimise reporting to meet the needs of investors and other users.
Under DTR 4.1.15, listed companies are required to publish their annual reports in structured electronic format (see our snapshot for an overview of the requirements). The FRC report is based on 50 annual reports published in the second year of the requirements being in force.
The FRC's recommendations relate to three areas:
- tagging, including creating custom tags only when necessary and to otherwise use standard tags;
- design and usability, including the use of text-block tags; and
- process, including whether to seek voluntary assurance of the tagging process.
The report also summarises the findings of research commissioned by the FRC on the use by investors of structured digital reports. The research found that over a third of investors are now using XBRL-format reports as a source of company financial data, as well as more established sources such as PDFs from company websites.
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