FRC to Corporates: Mind Your Tags
The UK’s Financial Reporting Council (FRC) has published its 2024/25 review of structured digital reporting, offering a timely pulse-check on how UK companies are performing under Inline XBRL reporting requirements.
Based on an in-depth analysis of filings made to the National Storage Mechanism, the report highlights improvements since previous years—but also flags quality issues that trip up preparers.
Notable concerns this year include unnecessary use of custom tags, poorly anchored extensions, tagging errors that misrepresent the accounting meaning of figures, and issues with sign, scale and design usability. The FRC is also calling out the lack of consistent tagging for mandatory items and narrative disclosures. While the number of basic errors is down, there is still work to do—especially in more complex areas requiring closer scrutiny from management.
Since 2021, companies on UK regulated markets have been required to file their annual reports in iXBRL under Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) rules. This shift has significantly improved data accessibility, but the FRC’s findings underscore that getting digital reporting right still demands rigour and attention.
The FRC’s renewed focus on reviewing digital filings—and writing directly to companies where issues persist—sends an important signal: it’s a feedback loop. As digital reporting matures, quality must take centre stage.
Read the full FRC review here.
