The 14th XBRL Conference took place in Philadelphia earlier this week, attracting more than 500 participants. The event, produced by XBRL International, Inc. and hosted by XBRL-US, featured keynote addresses from Christopher Cox, Chairman of the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC); Sir David Tweedie, Chairman of the International Accounting Standards Board (IASB); Samuel Mok, chief financial officer (CFO) of the U.S. Department of Labor; Barry Melancon, President and chief executive officer (CEO) of the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants (AICPA); Paul Sharman, CEO of the Institute of Management Accountants (IMA) and Robert Herz, Chairman of the Financial Accounting Standards Board (FASB); among others.

Many fascinating topics were covered and will be explored in greater detail in future articles, however, the central theme of the conference was the coming of a revolution in business reporting represented by eXtensible Business Reporting Language or XBRL. Unlike a previous revolution that took root in Philadelphia, this time Americans are not leading the way, although the Federal Deposit Insurance Company's (FDIC) Call Report Project, rolled out last year is among the largest projects successfully completed to date. In an effort to catch up to our international peers, the development of U.S. GAAP taxonomies is fully funded at $8.5 million and expected to be delivered in the summer of 2007. Expansion of the SEC's Voluntary Filing Program is also expected to continue to grow.

Vista is coming. The repeated delays may make it difficult to predict when, exactly, it will arrive, however, early adopters are already preparing. Tech Republic has identified ten things that firms need to consider before rolling Vista out throughout the company. They are:

1. Does your hardware meet Vista's hefty minimum system requirements?
2. Which edition(s) of Vista does the organization need?
3. Do you understand Vista licensing?
4. Are critical applications compatible with Vista?
5. Is the company network infrastructure able to support Vista?
6. Does everyone in the company need Vista and do they all need it at the same time?
7. Are all users prepared?
8. Are support personnel ready?
9. Is your data safe, thoroughly backed up and can it be restored "just in case"?
10. What will rolling Vista out really cost you?

For more information about preparing for Vista, Click Here.

GOT OPINIONS?

Do you have feedback on what you would like from AccountingWEB in 2007? What can we do better, do more, do less ... you get the idea. Please e-mail Rob Nance, Publisher, at publisher@accountingweb.com. We sincerely want to know how to serve you better!

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