The Form CT1 for accounting periods ending in 2013 or earlier contains a single tick box to indicate if an iXBRL file is being submitted by the filer.

When a taxpayer is completing a Form CT1 for accounts periods ending in 2014 or later they will be faced with several questions to determine whether they must complete the “Extracts from Accounts” section in the Form CT1 or whether they must file iXBRL Financial Statements.

Taxpayers who fall into option 1 or option 2 must file iXBRL accounts. Taxpayers that neither opt, nor are obliged, to file Financial Statements in iXBRL format must complete the “Extracts from Accounts” on the Form CT1 in full.

It is not acceptable to have the Financial Statements partially reported in iXBRL and partly entered on the Form CT1. The iXBRL return must, at minimum, include the full Financial Statements including the Detailed Profit or Loss account. Therefore, where a taxpayer has indicated that they are submitting iXBRL Financial Statements, then the “Extracts from Accounts” section of the Form CT1 is not available to that taxpayer to complete.

Preparing financial statements in iXBRL mode for filing with the Revenue

The process for creation and filing of Financial Statements in iXBRL mode is as under:

Step 1: Retrieve the financial statements tabled at your company’s annual general meeting. This is referred to as the “source document” in the preparation tool, which can be in either Microsoft Word or Microsoft Excel formats.

Step 2: Map the line items in your financial statements to the relevant tags within the applicable Taxonomy. Ensure that you have fulfilled the minimum requirement list.

Step 3: When completed, validate your iXBRL financial statements. Review the errors highlighted, if any.

Step 4: Save the iXBRL financial statements for submission with ROS.

Step 5: Uploading your company’s iXBRL financial statements to ROS portal alongwith Form CT1.

Preparing XBRL Financials – In house or Outsource?

As companies of all sizes determine how they will meet the Revenue’s iXBRL filing requirements, they have several options to consider. Will they do it themselves or will they outsource the work? For each company, this answer will differ, as there is no one-size-fits-all approach to filing in iXBRL.

The first thing a Company must do is identify its priorities and resources, including budget, staff and expertise. On the other hand, some companies will make decisions based on their desire to have more control over the report preparation process.

In-house Creation of iXBRL documents:

When creating the iXBRL report In-House, companies must do most of the heavy lifting themselves. There are many factors to consider when insourcing including what software tool to use, how to overcome the steep learning curve, what tags to choose, how to validate the files produced (usually the software tool can address this) and what internal procedures will be followed for gaining approval of the tags selected. The level of effort is significantly greater using this approach and will involve expert help from external partners due to complexity of XBRL implementation.

Outsource:

When outsourcing, Companies choose a partner to do the heavy lifting of selecting and mapping XBRL tags to financial reporting facts, creating custom extensions, building the extension taxonomy and populating the instance document – in short creating the XBRL filing. In reality this process is iterative whereby the partner creates the XBRL files then returns some form of rendering (often a pdf document) for review. The filer must review and comment on the tags selected and make changes where desired. There are usually three to five rounds of tag selection and approval, so the filer is involved all along the way.

Why should you outsource XBRL Conversion services to XBRL Experts?

As directors are responsible for the correct representation and accuracy of the information filed, it is often something that they or the business owner works on personally. However, the filing process can be time-consuming and daunting, taking up valuable time that could have been spent on core business functions.

Outsourcing the filing to a professional accounting services firm gives directors and business owners peace of mind, knowing that their company’s compliance needs are in good hands. Outsourcing helps eliminate the hassle of figuring out how to use the online filing system, selecting the required information for disclosure, entering the information manually, and reviewing the financial statements.

XBRL Experts provide you with a simple and secure way to prepare and file the Financial Statements with Revenue. Our technology and quality assurance processes ensure that your output is 100% correct each and every time. We can help you meet your XBRL Conversion requirements in Timely and Cost Effective manner with Guaranteed Accuracy.