XBRL International will be holding elections for the XBRL International Board of Directors (XII Board) during the XII Member Assembly meeting held on Monday 5 November, 2012 in Yokohama, Japan. The XII Board is currently seeking candidates for the following categories:

1. Two (2) Jurisdiction Voting Representatives;
2. Three (3) At-large seats, of which one is reserved for the Treasurer, eligible to any candidate (including Jurisdiction and Organizational Direct members, any XII eligible participant or any other individual).

Process

The Nominees will be elected to the XII Board at the XII Member Assembly meeting in Yokoyama Japan on Monday 5 November 2012. As these are working positions, candidates should ensure that they have sufficient time and, if appropriate, employer support to devote to this position.

The Election procedures for the vote on nominees for XII Board of Directors are as follows:

1. Nominees will be solicited by XII Nominations Committee
2. XII Nominations Committee will:
   1. Prepare a ballot from eligible candidates for the Jurisdictional Voting Representatives (Note: only Jurisdictional Voting Representatives will be eligible to vote for this category of Board member). Each eligible voting representative will cast one vote for each seat available. (i.e. 2 Board seats from this category – 2 votes may be cast for 2 different candidates);
   2. Present a slate of nominees for the At-Large Board of Director positions to the Member Assembly (Note: both Jurisdictional and Organizational Direct Voting Representatives will be eligible to vote for this category of Board member). This slate of candidates will be considered in total, not voted on individually;

The XII Nominations Committee will conduct the actual election, tally the votes and report to the Member Assembly the results.

Term

Board members serve for a period of two years.  Board members may be re-elected to serve a second consecutive term.   After serving two consecutive terms, Board members are eligible for nomination after a two year absence.

Eligibility & Requirements

The XBRL International invites interested parties to submit their CV together with a candidate statement supporting their nomination by private email directly to nominate@xbrl.org no later than 23.59 UTC on 10 September 2012. When submitting a nomination please specify for which category you are applying.

The candidate statement should specifically address the following questions:

1. Any experience/involvement with the XBRL International organization.
2. Tell us about your experience/involvement with any XII activities/initiatives/projects.
3. What special skills or experience do you believe you will bring to the XII Board?

Individuals may nominate themselves but the Nominations Committee will also be pleased to accept nominations of individuals from other people. However if you would like to nominate someone other than yourself please make the nomination in sufficient time to allow us to contact the individual concerned to ask them whether they are willing to accept the nomination and submit their CV and candidate statement by the above deadline.

The key dates to bear in mind are as follows:

• 23  July 2012 - Nominations period opens
• 10  September  2012 at 23:59 UTC - Nominations period closes
• 5  November 2012 - Elections take place at Yokohama Member Assembly meeting

The election will be administered by the Nominations Committee of XBRL International.

If you have any queries concerning this election or on the role of a Board member please address them to nominate@xbrl.org.

(15 June 2012) – XBRL International (XII) today released the second public working draft of its Abstract Model. The abstract model has been developed as a means of establishing a common framework for communicating and understanding the XBRL technology. The abstract model provides a conceptual framework for understanding XBRL and gives developers a strong foundation for implementing XBRL solutions.

The release of a public working draft is a key opportunity for XII members, Jurisdictions and other stakeholders around the world to influence the development of XBRL. The second PWD of the Abstract Model may be found at: http://xbrl.org/Specification/abstractmodel-primary/PWD-2012-06-06/abstractmodel-primary-pwd-2012-06-06.html

The development of the XII Abstract Model is led by the Abstract Modelling Task Force and includes use case diagrams, class diagrams, object diagrams, and sequence diagrams. It is a key component of Preserve Promote Participate, the strategic core vision developed by the XBRL Standards Board to continue the momentum of the XBRL standard.

The AMTF is supported by:

(7 June 2012) -- XII is pleased to announce the launch of the XBRL International API Task Force (API-TF), which has been tasked by the XBRL International Standards Board to oversee the development and delivery of XBRL APIs as identified under the “Preserve Promote Participate” strategy initiative.

An application programming interface (API) enables software applications to connect to and interact with other technologies. By standardizing the APIs created for XBRL through the use of API signatures, XII hopes to provide more choice, consistency, and interoperability in the software and tools used for XBRL-based projects.

Standardizing how XBRL interfaces with other technologies offers the following benefits:

• Provides software developers with a familiar point of entry into XBRL
• Delivers useful learning tools for developers wishing to incorporate XBRL
• Encourages open source implementations of XBRL API signatures

“This effort is critical to making XBRL easier to use for software developers and vendors, as well the open source development community,” said Conor O’Kelly, chair of the XII Standards Board. “We appreciate the contribution of our volunteers in their support of our goals to encourage adoption and prepare the XBRL Specification for future opportunities.”

The API Task Force will define a common set of capabilities that XBRL APIs will support, including implementation-independent API signatures and supporting materials. The Task Force will incorporate the XBRL Abstract Model currently under development by XBRL International.

(4 June 2012) -- XII is pleased to announce the election of four new members to the Best Practices Board (BPB). The new members of the Best Practices Board are:

• Chao Li, CAS Taxonomy Team, PwC, China
• Ian Hicks, Corefiling, UK
• Rita Ogun-Clijmans, IASB, UK
• Brad Monterio, ColcomGroup, US

“These candidates bring an exciting array of knowledge and talent to the BPB,” said Tony Fragnito, XII CEO. “Their contributions will provide additional resources to the BPB and accelerate delivery of critical guidance and market resources to the community.”

# # #

17 May 2012 -- XBRL International (XII) is pleased to announce the appointment of Ashu Bhatnagar as Director of Standards and Practices, effective 21 May 2012. Bhatnagar will be responsible for providing strategic guidance and operational leadership to the Technical Boards and Working Groups of XII as well as developing key practice guidance for adopters of the XBRL specification.

“Ashu’s experience in creating widely utilized XBRL tools and services for the US, UK, Indian and emerging markets is important as the specification reaches a more mature stage and becomes more widely adopted for all facets of business reporting,” said Tony Fragnito, CEO of XII. “He will play an integral role in maintaining XII’s leadership role in providing both technical and business process information, resources and guidance to the developers and users of XBRL.”

In addition to managing the process for the ongoing development and maintenance of the XBRL specification, Ashu Bhatnagar will also be responsible for advancing a comprehensive program to create practice guidance resources for the XBRL community that identifies emerging trends and provides key information to the XBRL community on a broad range of technical and market issues.

Ashu Bhatnagar most recently served as the CEO of Good Morning  Research - SoftPark USA, which serves financial analysts and investment professionals globally with tagging, uploading and distribution of investor presentations, annual reports and company financials.  He also developed, launched and managed FreeXBRLonline.com, which provides XBRL conversion services and XBRL tagging software for regulatory filings such as Corporation Tax - Accounts and Computations for HMRC UK, and Annual Accounts filings for companies under mandate by the Ministry of Corporate Affairs, India.

Prior to that Ashu Bhatnagar was Vice President and Product Manager of Modelware Web at Morgan Stanley. And before that he has twenty years of experience in product development and product management at JPMorgan Chase, Citibank and Digital Equipment Corporation.

Ashu Bhatnagar holds a Master of Science in Electrical Engineering from the University of Rhode Island, and a Bachelor of Science in Electrical Engineering from the Indian Institute of Technology. He also did graduate studies at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and as an Adjunct Faculty taught graduate courses in Advanced Computer Architectures and Parallel Processing at the University of Massachusetts.

Mr. Bhatnagar has presented on Semantic XBRL topics at several International forums, including W3C/XII Workshop 2009, SemTech 2010, 15th International Conference on Information Quality 2010, The Columbia Institute for Tele-Information (CITI) at Columbia Business School 2010, and 5th MIT Information Quality Industry Symposium 2011.

(3 May 2012, Helsinki) – XBRL International (XII) today announced that XBRL Finland, a joint venture of key public and private organizations aimed at raising awareness of the XBRL standard (eXtensible Business Reporting Language) in Finland has been granted Provisional Jurisdiction status. By naming XBRL Finland as a Jurisdiction, XII is recognizing the group as Finland’s representative to the global consortium that maintains the XBRL standard and supports the adoption of this business reporting standard.

“XII is pleased to welcome Finland to the community of financial, business and technology leaders that are responsible for XBRL – the world’s leading language for the sharing of business information,” said Anthony Fragnito, CEO of XBRL International. “Finland has long been a technology leader and a pioneer in areas such as e-invoicing. XII’s efforts to further the global adoption of XBRL will benefit from their expertise and insight.”

The authorities related to financial reporting (National Board of Patents and Registration, Tax Administration, Federation of Finnish Financial Services) have recognized the value and possibilities of XBRL. They perceive the XBRL standard very positively and also as necessary to secure the competiveness of Finnish companies. “The main task of the National Board of Patents and Registration is to maintain and supply accurate and timely information about the Finnish companies to different stakeholders. The nationwide adoption of XBRL in Finland will bring significant improvements to the quality of the reports and also substantially speed up the processing time of the financial reports thus providing more timely information for the end users.” summarizes Olli Koikkalainen from the National Board of Patents and Registration of Finland.

“XBRL Finland shows that with a strong vision and the right business case it is possible to mobilize key stakeholders in financial reporting to join forces to support the adoption of XBRL,” states Dave van den Ende, chairman of XII’s Membership Development Committee.

XBRL Finland’s key objective for the coming year of will be to create the taxonomy for financial statements according to Finnish GAAP (FAS, Finnish Accounting Standards). After that, the FAS taxonomy will be tested and arrangements will be made with regulatory authorities to start receiving financial reports in XBRL. The goal is begin XBRL filings in 2014. Other activities for XBRL Finland will be to raise awareness about XBRL, educating different stakeholders and acting as a link between XBRL International and developments throughout the Nordic Region.

“We are very excited to have been able to gather together all the central organizations regarding business reporting to our consortium. Joint work to initiate XBRL reporting in Finland has already started and the work is progressing at a good pace,” stated Elina Koskentalo and Esko Penttinen from XBRL Finland.

About XBRL Finland
XBRL Finland is a joint venture of key public and private organizations. Aalto University is the host organization for XBRL Finland consortium and the founding members are: National Board of Patents and Registration, Tax Administration, Federation of Finnish Financial Services, Association of Finnish Accounting Firms, Aalto University, KPMG, PwC, Tieto, Aditro, Asiakastieto, Kauppalehti Tietopalvelut (Balance Consulting), Finnish Information Society Development Centre, Åbo Akademi, Hanken, IBM Finland and Deloitte.

(1 May 2012) – XBRL International, Inc. is pleased to announce that its exclusive online training and examination program – the XBRL Foundation Certificate – is now available. Offered in partnership with ITpreneurs, a leading developer of highly innovative and advanced training solutions, the XBRL Foundation Certificate is a great chance for XBRL newcomers and experts alike to demonstrate their mastery of the fundamentals of this critical business tool.

The five learning modules in the XBRL Foundation Certificate take learners progressively through a curriculum designed to provide a solid foundational knowledge of the XBRL specification. The program covers a broad range of topics including a comparison of business reporting methods, the business requirements that drove the development of the XBRL Specification, the general architecture of XBRL, the specification’s main components and the basics of modeling for XBRL taxonomy development.

“XBRL International is committed to making sure that developers, adopters and solution providers have the knowledge they need to succeed,” said XBRL International CEO Tony Fragnito. “The XBRL Foundation Certification is a product of the expertise and knowledge of a group of highly experienced experts proficient in the many benefits available through of the adoption of XBRL”.

Please visit the XII website to learn more about the program, including pricing and curriculum details. There is also a course demo available to view.

The training and exam were created in partnership with XBRL implementation consultants Business Reporting Advisory Group and ITpreneurs.

“A high level of interest and demand during the pre-registration period is a reflection of the need for training and certification in this quickly growing segment,” said ITpreneurs CEO Sukhbir Jasuja. “We expect a broad range of learners from corporations, accounting firms, regulators and technology companies.”

(March 29, 2012) Open Source Tools and XBRL GL Bring XBRL to the Small Business Arena

XBRL International, Inc. today released its FY2011 financial statements in XBRL format utilizing the Arelle framework, the Deeply Embedded XBRL Toolkit (DEXT) and XBRL GL. XII financial reports for fiscal years 2003 – 2011 are available at http://www.xbrl.org/financial-statements-0.

“There is a building excitement around having an XBRL extraction tool for Quickbooks available in an open source environment,” said XII CEO Tony Fragnito. “This is a way for small businesses not operating under a mandate to begin to harness the power of XBRL in a cost-effective way”.

The data conversion was accomplished using an Arelle Project web service that interfaces with QuickBooks, using XBRL GL as a standardized format to represent transaction-style data such as trial balance, journal and general ledger. US GAAP reports were created using DEXT.

QuickBooks data is represented with XBRL's Global Ledger Taxonomy Framework (XBRL GL), a standard for representing detailed ERP system data from first transaction to end reporting. XBRL GL integrates seamlessly through and across systems - whether accounting, operational or management reporting and recording. It provides the drill-down details from end reporting concepts through General Ledger with full reconciliation capability.

Arelle is a project to provide the XBRL community with an easy to use open source platform for XBRL using a compact yet robust framework that can be used as a desktop application and can be integrated with other applications and languages utilizing its web service. Users can explore the functionality and features from an interactive GUI, command line interface, or web services, and can develop their own controller interfaces as needed. The Web Service API allows XBRL integration with applications, such as those in Excel, Java or Oracle. 

DEXT is a suite of freely available software tools and community-maintained libraries of standardized chart of accounts, mappings to XBRL taxonomies, and standardized business rules. It is designed to enable the use of XBRL within the enterprise, whether it is subject to an XBRL mandate or not, to reduce costs and increase efficiencies in internal and external reporting. More information on DEXT is available at http://dext.iphix.net.

“As the organisation that developed and maintains the XBRL specification, we felt it was necessary to provide our financial statements in XBRL by using tools available in the marketplace that catered to our specific needs. Arelle, DEXT and XBRL GL fit the bill,” Fragnito concluded.
Prior year XBRL statements will be made available as soon as the data is converted.

(March 31, 2012) XBRL International Inc. (XII) is seeking a Director of Standards Development.

XII is a global, not-for-profit consortium of companies and agencies responsible for the development, maintenance and support of XBRL, an XML-based language for the electronic communication of business information.

This is a hands-on, high-profile position providing strategic guidance and operational leadership to the Technical Boards and Working Groups of XII, including developing and managing work plans, resource planning and engagement and communications both internally and externally to XBRL stakeholders.

Reporting to the CEO, the Director of Standards Development is responsible for managing the employees, volunteers and contractors to bring XII technical products to market and assuring that they meet market needs, through surfacing requirements, examining edge cases, testing assumptions, developing test cases, example code and conformance suites.

XII is a globally distributed organisation and as such, employee location is flexible.

The full job description is available here.

Please submit resume and any supporting materials to ceo@xbrl.org. 

(March 19, 2012) XBRL International, Inc. is now accepting registrants for its XBRL Foundation Certificate Program.

The XBRL Foundation Certificate is an online training and testing program consisting of discrete modules that take learners progressively through a curriculum designed to provide a solid foundational knowledge of the XBRL specification and its benefits.  Upon completion of the online training, candidates will have the opportunity to take an online exam.  A passing grade earns an XBRL Foundation Certificate from XII.

Click here to learn more about the program, including pricing and curriculum details. There is also a course demo available to view.

"Training and certification is a great chance for XBRL newcomers and experts alike to demonstrate their mastery of the fundamentals of this critical business tool," said XBRL International CEO Tony Fragnito. "As XBRL continues to develop as the predominant standard for sharing business information, programs like the XBRL Foundation Certificate become increasingly important in making sure developers, users and solution providers have the knowledge to succeed".

There are five learning modules in the XBRL Foundation Certificate covering a broad range of topics including a comparison of business reporting methods, the business requirements that drove the development of the XBRL Specification, the general architecture of XBRL, the specification's main components and the basics of modeling for XBRL taxonomy development.

The certificate program was overseen by the XII Certification Board, a select group of experts well-versed in the development and use of the standard. The training and exam were created in partnership with XBRL implementation consultants Business Reporting Advisory Group and ITpreneurs, a leading developer of highly innovative and advanced training solutions for IT best practices.

"We are extremely pleased to have been able to partner with the organization that created the XBRL standard to offer training and certification for this quickly growing segment," said ITpreneurs CEO Sukhbir Jasuja. "Our proven online delivery platform and innovative course design will provide an interactive and dynamic learning environment for those looking to master the fundamentals of XBRL."

By pre-registering, candidates will enjoy a 20% discount off of the list price of the course and exam. Pre-registrants will receive a registration code and will be notified once the training and exam become available.