XBRL Dos and Don’tsTop tips in preparing for the new legislation |
Keep it simple
With so many decisions to be made in the field of iXBRL filing we have produced a set of simple dos and don’ts to assist you in your decision making. For more details on any of the issues below please contact one of our iXBRL team.
Do
- Undertake the correct preparatory work:
- Optimise your tax computations for e-filing (for example by using the standard template schedules provided by your compliance software).
- Consider a two step strategy. i.e. A tactical approach to comply in the short term bearing in mind HMRCs ‘soft landing’, alongside improving your entire accounts production and tax compliance process over 2 - 3 years.
- Understand how this fits into wider IT and finance function programmes in your organisation
- Consider outsourcing, as it may be the most appropriate and cost effective approach for your business.
- Understand the new solutions and services available in the market, including accounts conversion tools, accounts preparation packages and financial reporting transformation.
- Comply with just the minimum tagging list that HMRC require. Tagging more of your tax computation or accounts will require additional effort with no immediate benefit.
- Review success of first year’s filing and assess other suppliers.
Don't
- Don’t invest in changing your existing financial processes to support e-filing under UK GAAP without considering the implications of transitioning to IFRS accounting standards.
- Don’t commit too early to a manual iXBRL ‘accounts conversion’ tool, tying your organisation into a software solution which may not be suitable in the longer term.
- Don’t assume that your tax compliance software will automatically tag all the required elements of your computations. Some preparation may be required for non-standard or free format areas of computations.
