XBRLogic (formerly AsReported.com) has automated the conversion
of private company financial statements to standardized XBRL-based financials.
For a short demo of this process, go here…
https://www.screencast.com/t/lYUtFFRp80
Private companies are not required by the SEC to produce XBRL
financial data. But they may have an interest in producing a standardized
version of their financial results, both for internal and external purposes. Lenders,
private equity firms, potential partners, vendors extending credit, insurance
companies and taxing authorities, to name a few, may look favorably on, if not
require, financial data that is in a familiar format and standardized against a
common taxonomy. For most purposes, standardizing only the primary statements
is needed, along with relevant footnote detail and segment data, not a complete
SEC-style filing. And creating XML transmission files isn’t necessary, although
that’s not hard. A simple JSON feed or spreadsheet is sufficient to transmit
this more limited data set along with metadata.
Banks already standardize the financial results of companies
in their portfolios, although they likely use proprietary taxonomies instead of
XBRL. That will change. Increasing acceptance of XBRL worldwide will cause a
migration to a single taxonomy for a given jurisdiction. Even data aggregators like
S&P, Bloomberg, Thomson Reuters and Factset will be forced by the market to
adopt the XBRL taxonomies rather than leave their users stranded with outdated
formats and nomenclatures. The XBRL taxonomies (US GAAP, IFRS, etc.) are granular,
comprehensive, multi-dimensional and structurally coherent. They’re public,
transparent and freely available. They’re just better and that will become more
apparent over time. Spoken languages coalesce and so will financial reporting
languages.