How can regulators help smaller entities go digital?
Our blog series diving into the new XBRL International Regulatory Playbook continues with a question that shapes many reporting frameworks: how can regulators help smaller entities participate effectively in digital reporting?
Without data, no reporting project goes anywhere, so engaging reporting entities and supporting them to produce timely, high-quality digital disclosures is essential. Smaller entities can be an important part of the picture, but they tend to need extra help. They typically lack dedicated IT or compliance staff, may struggle to absorb even very small additional reporting costs, and are more easily overwhelmed by complex new requirements.
The Playbook sets out ways to lower those barriers: a dedicated, simplified policy framework and taxonomy focused solely on the information required from smaller entities; user-friendly XBRL reporting software, weighing in-house, vendor partnership and open-source approaches; and training and support built around their needs. A sustainable framework depends on thinking beyond compliance to build collaborative, empowering relationships with the reporting community.
(And for a closer look at how a comprehensive national framework can support all-sized entities to build a single rich dataset for all kinds of users, Data Amplified 2026 will explore the Netherlands’ model of open data as public infrastructure – and what the rest of us can learn from it. Join us in The Hague on 26–27 October!)
