Focus on quality “more than worth it” – and other last-minute ESEF considerations for first-time filers
Filing season is well underway in what is the first year of the European Single Electronic Format (ESEF) mandate in many countries, obliging companies to report digitally using Inline XBRL. New requirements inevitably bring challenges – but, says Toppan Merrill’s Bartek Czajka, newcomers have the advantage of learning from the experiences of the roughly 30% of issuers that filed in 2021.
He makes the observation that the ESEF mandate is bringing about a renewed focus on quality – and not just of the XBRL data itself. “XBRL is forcing companies to re-think their financials and look more closely at things they haven’t touched in ages. We’ve seen preparers making big changes to their financials, and we’ve seen deep discussions on the quality of the financials themselves because of how the XBRL makes it easy to catch errors, inaccuracies and inconsistencies in the financial information. This focus on quality is more than worth it,” he says.
He also discusses the broad impact of the changes in process across the financial reporting team, and the importance of early auditor involvement, as well as of making the most of opportunities for testing and validation.
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